


A Seemingly Normal Life

by queen4077



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: All the Avengers original six and otherwise are friends, Avengers Family, Avengers Tower, Brainwashing, Combat, Domestic Avengers, F/M, Fight Scenes, Marvel Cinematic Universe but with some stuff from the comics, Mentions of memory loss, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Original Character is a Black Widow, Peter Parker Lives in Avengers Tower, PoC, Red Room Graduate, Red Room Student, Slow Burn, The Avengers Fantastic Four and The Xmen all live in Avengers tower cause that makes me happy, The Red Room, We absolutely do not talk about endgame either, We don’t talk about civil war, We don’t talk about infinity war either, woc
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:49:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 37,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27577432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queen4077/pseuds/queen4077
Summary: Jordan Andrews has lived a seemingly, normal life so far, except for the lack of memory that can’t be explained. That’s about to change once she gets a job as a technician at Stark Industries. She meets the Avengers and everything She’s ever known about her life starts to unravel.
Relationships: Tony Stark & Avengers Team, Tony Stark/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 25





	1. First, a flashback

**Author's Note:**

> Ok guys so this is my first story for Archive of Our Own, bear with me if some of the technological stuff doesn’t make sense, it won’t be too complicated and deep though lol.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, so as you know this is my first story for archive. I just had this idea and I needed to get it down before I forgot where I wanted to go with it. This chapter mentions horrible treatment and living conditions, and death, descriptions of murder as well, so I will mention that.  
> Also, I like to read stories with outfit ideas in my head, so I will be using rejected concept art from Natasha Romanoff. In this chapter Jordan goes on her first assignment, and the suit she will be using throughout her time in the Red Room can be found here in this link: https://www.pinterest.it/pin/810999845383065789/

Manhattan, 1950

Jordan Andrews woke up to another simple day, well as simple as a day could get when you worked as a technician for the famous Howard Stark. 

She got ready, had a simple breakfast, and walked out the door. 

Once Jordan got to work she said good morning to a few of her coworkers and then went to see Howard.

“Morning Howard, how are you?” asked Jordan. Jordan and Howard had known each other for a few years, Howard was one of the only friendships Jordan had. Howard had told Jordan how he and his wife Maria wanted a child. Recently Howard had confided in Jordan about how he and Maria had been struggling to have children, Maria had unfortunately experienced a recent miscarriage. So he had been a bit upset lately.

Jordan decided to change the subject, “How’s it going with your other...little project..” She asked. The other project Jordan was talking about was Howard’s side of looking for Steve Rogers, also known as Captain America. Howard had told Jordan very little about his search for the hero, but she new enough. It was Howard’s number one goal to find Steve. Some days Jordan thought that his desire to find the Captain was a bit obsessive, but she would never say that to Howard’s face. But, if you asked her, the likelihood of them finding Steve Rogers at this point in time with their limited technology and resources was a fool’s dream. 

“It’s going the same as the last time you asked me that.” Howard said with a grimace. “We aren’t any closer, but I’m going on another trip with the team next week.” He said.  
“Ok,” Jordan responded easily. “I’m going to go back to work, good luck Howard...just...I don’t want you to be disappointed if something doesn’t give.” Jordan said softly, the last thing she wanted was to upset Howard, as you can tell, it was a touchy subject.  
“Something’s gotta give Jordan!” Howard said with conviction. “I’ve been looking for nearly over 5 years now, he has to be out there. Jordan took this in, she and Howard looked at each other for a long moment. Nobody said a word, but they both knew that it would take much longer than 5 years to search the whole Arctic for the Captain.

Clearly Howard was desperate to find his friend, Jordan could see that. She did not know Steve Rogers personally, as she had never met him, but she knew that the man meant a lot to Howard.

Jordan decided to leave the subject alone, and just help Howard prepare for his next search, as they packed up maps and equations and research papers, Jordan had the feeling that Howard would only be left wanting.


	2. Continuance

Manhattan, 1950

It was another day, and Howard had just come back from his most recent trip to search for Steve, and as Jordan had guessed, he didn’t find him, so he was in a bad mood.

Jordan knew how to approach these moods, seeing as how they happened so often. She greeted Howard briefly, and did her work all without bringing up the failed search. Luckily the annual Stark Expo was coming up in a few months, so Jordan, Howard, and all the other employees would be putting their energy into work for the expo. Jordan was happy with that, because Howard wouldn’t be going on a wild goose chase anytime soon, it was usually good to space these inevitable disappointments out. And don’t get her wrong, Jordan wanted to be supportive and respectful towards Howard, but she also had to be rational. There was a chance that they would find the Captain, but there was also the chance that he would be lost forever.

After work, Jordan said goodbye to Howard and went to get some dinner, as a black woman in 1950s Brooklyn, she had to be mindful of where she chose to get her dinner.  
As much fun as her job was, the rest of Jordan’s life was mundane...and stressful, she was a 33 year old black woman working as a technician and not a housewife? Or a maid? Unacceptable to some people. So really, her life outside of work was spent alone, and fighting for equal rights. For a few years, she was the only black woman working in Stark Industries. A lot of times she still got weird looks from other employees that wondered how on earth she got there.

Jordan had been very poor growing up. Her parents had tried their best to provide the best life they could for their only child. And with the support from her childhood, Jordan had decided she would try her best with the knowledge she had. She put everything into her work. She knew that some people would wonder why she even dreamed of applying to Stark Industries, but Jordan tried to brush it off, she knew she could do it. So when she impulsively applied to Stark Industries in 1945, she just hoped it would be worth it.

Brooklyn, January, 1955

Jordan had officially been working at Stark Industries for 10 years, she had just turned 38 and had received her 10 year badge, and this aspect of her life was going well.  
Howard was more or less the same, if not grumpier and sadder. He still had not found Steve Rogers, and he and Maria still didn’t have a child...meaning he didn’t have an heir to his company.

A few weeks after Jordan had gotten her 10 year badge, she came into work, and Howard seemed to be deep in thought while looking at some vials full of blue liquid. Jordan figured it was just some machine fluid, so she payed little attention to the substance. “I want my heir to be the best Jordan,” He said. Jordan did not know what that meant, so she just responded with what she thought. “Of course Howard, any descendant of yours is going to have great parents to teach them everything they’ll need to know.” She said. Howard chuckled, “I agree.” is all he said. While Jordan was confused with the way Howard was acting, she wasn’t all that concerned, after all she was used to this kind of behaviour, Howard often got distracted and blurred out random thoughts when he got into a zone, and anyway, she had came to his office for a different reason.

“Um, Howard,” she said. “I just came here to ask you for an extended leave of absence.” She continued. “What for?” He asked distractedly. “Well, I haven’t seen my parents in a few years, so I was going to visit them in Canada,” she responded simply. “Sure,” Howard said, “Of course you can have time off.” Jordan was surprised, she did not expect Howard to give her the time so easily, as he was such a workaholic, but then again so was she. Anyhow, she wouldn’t complain. “Okay Howard, um, thanks, I appreciate it.” She said.  
“Great.” Howard said, his attention turned back to the vials. “I’m going to be leaving tomorrow,” said Jordan, “see you in a few months,” she continued. Howard looked at her again, “Bye Jordan, say hello to the folks for me.” “Ok, I will, bye Howard.”  
Jordan was about to leave, but that’s when Howard dropped the bomb. “Jordan...wait.” He said slowly, as if he was contemplating what he was about to say. “Maria’s pregnant.” He said quietly. Jordan gasped. “Really?!” She squealed, “aw Howard that’s great! I’m so happy for you! The both of you!” Jordan continued and walked back to give Howard a hug. She knew how much this meant to her friend and she was elated by the news. “Tell Maria I say congrats, I’ll be gone for a few months but by the time I get back the baby should be nearly here!” Jordan was excited. She left Howard’s office and Stark Industries with a smile. 

September, still 1955

Jordan had just returned to Manhattan, happy that she was able to spend a few months with her parents. They were happy, and doing well. As she got ready for the day, tying up her long curly, black hair, she was excited to see what would be waiting for her back at work. She wondered how Howard was doing. And more importantly she wondered how the baby was doing. If her timing was correct, Maria should give birth soon, if she hadn’t already.

She walked into the Stark Industries building, the same since the last time she was there. She decided to go see Howard, and let him know of her return. She signed in with her badge;  
Jordan Maxine Andrews  
Date of Birth: 30/06/1917  
Height: 5’7  
Weight: 137lbs  
Specialty: Technician  
Place of Work: Stark Industries 

Jordan made her way to her desk, and put down her papers that she had taken home before she left. Then she made her way to Howard’s office, knowing he would be there.

She knocked three times before opening the door. “Howard?” She called twice as she walked further in the room. As she turned the corner, she saw Howard standing around a bunch of new papers. “Hello Jordan”, he said quickly, “how was the trip?” He asked with little interest. “It was good, my parents are great,” she said happily. “What are you doing? How are you doing?” Jordan asked. “Ugh, fine,” Howard said angrily. That was when Jordan noticed the map that Howard had in front of him, it had a bunch of red x’s on it, Jordan suspected another failed search, so she knew to tread carefully. She decided to ask the question that had been on her mind since she had left 9 months ago. “Soooo, how’s the baby? And Maria? Did she give birth yet? It was a boy right? What’s his name?” She blurted out the questions in rapid fire. Howard froze. He didn’t say anything for a long time, and continued looking at his papers. The silence went on for a long time, and Jordan was about to repeat her line of questioning, but then Howard spoke in a rush. “There were complications.” He said curtly, his body language was stiff. Jordan’s heart sunk, she hoped nothing bad had happened. “What do you mean?” She asked tentatively, silently hoping that nothing bad had happened to the baby or Maria. “He was born...premature...just a few weeks before the due date, in August.” Howard started. Jordan quietly listened. “He...he had complications when he was born...he’s sick.” Howard struggled to say the last few words. “Howard, I’m sorry..” Jordan was not sure what to say, she felt terrible. “Is he still in the hospital?” She asked. “No...he’s in a private hospice care centre in downtown Manhattan.” Howard spoke. Jordan nodded softly, she didn’t know how to proceed with the conversation. “What’s his name?” She decided to go with that. “Arno.” Howard bit out. Jordan noticed he seemed more angry than sad. Jordan was about to say more but Howard quickly changed the subject. “Hey, can you grab me a ruler, they should be over there?” Howard muttered as he pointed to the far corner of the office. “Sure,” Jordan said. As she walked to the corner of the office to search for a ruler, she noticed a sheet of paper, it looked like a birth certificate, so she picked it up. As she looked at it, the date said August 25th just a few weeks before she came back. “Hey Jordan! You find it yet?” Howard called. Jordan hurried to find the ruler, and she walked back over to Howard with the certificate in her other hand.  
She stood quietly before she couldn’t take the quiet anymore. Howard was avoiding the subject, but Jordan could not easily forget.

“Can I see him?” she finally asked. Howard was very reluctant at first, but he finally gave in. He told Jordan the location of the Manhattan medical centre, and the name Arno was registered under, and off she went.

She gave her name to the front desk and asked for Arno Casey. (The cover name) 

Jordan walked towards the room number she was given...and it was depressing. She slowly opened the door and quietly walked in. In the middle of the room was a tiny crib with a frail, pale baby boy in it. The boy was so tiny, with little wisps of blond hair, Jordan was overcome with emotion and pity for the boy. He had wires and IV tubes sticking out of him. and a breathing machine going. She walked over to the crib and said softly, “Hi Arno, my name is Jordan, I’m a friend, I’m sorry this is where you are.” She said to the sleeping boy. 

When the nurse came in, Jordan asked some questions about Arno’s health.  
“So, how long does he have?” She asked sadly.

The nurse gave Jordan a weird look.  
“He’s not dying.” She said, as if Jordan should know that.

Jordan looked away from the crib, shocked.  
“But..but this is a hospice centre?” She said, slowly, as if the nurse didn’t know that.

“Yes, but we also care for the very sick as well, Arno is very sick, but with the right medications he can live in the semblance of a normal life, however he will need assistance and he is very weak. He might always need help.” The nurse informed Jordan.

Jordan was still shocked, when Howard had told her about this centre she had assumed the baby had a short life expectancy. But if he didn’t? Why wasn’t he at home with a private nurse? Surely the Stark’s could afford that.

Jordan stayed at the medical centre for hours before she left late into night, alone with her unsettling thoughts.  
The next day Jordan went in to work and immediately headed to Howard’s office. She knocked once before she entered, already knowing that Howard would be around. And he had some explaining to do. “Howard,” Jordan called. “Hmm,” he responded, clearly distracted. “I thought Arno was dying.” She said bluntly, “you made it sound as if there was no hope for him,” she continued. Howard’s posture stiffened. “He’s very sick.” Was all he said. “I know that...but he isn’t dying, it’ll be hard..but he’s going to live, he might even get better eventually.” Jordan said, trying to figure out why Howard still seemed upset. “He’s sick.” Howard said again. Jordan didn’t know why Howard kept on saying that. “Um...I know...” Jordan said, now she was confused. She decided to change gears. “Why isn’t he at home? With a private nurse?” She inquired. “It’s been a few weeks, surely you can take him home with round the clock care?” She stated/questioned. All of a sudden Howard slammed his fist onto the table. Jordan flinched in surprise. She didn’t understand why he was so angry. “He’s sick! Jordan!” Howard spoke angrily. “He can’t be my heir!” He finally said. So that was the problem. Jordan was shocked at the outburst. Even though Arno was sick, didn’t mean he was incapable of running Stark Industries in the future. When Jordan voiced this, it just made Howard more upset. “I told you my heir needed to be perfect..and strong. And he’s sick, and weak.” Howard spoke softly, but still with an undertone of anger. Jordan didn’t see the logic. But before she inquired Howard dropped another bomb that’s silenced her. “Your not going to give this up...fine...it’s my fault he’s sick.” Howard said dejectedly. “Howard...what do you mean?” Jordan said, Howard could not possibly blame himself for something that was out of his control, when she told him so, he just shook his head and continued. “There’s no easy way to tell you this, but, when I found out that Arno was going to be premature I...I..I formulated a plan. I wanted him to be perfect...so I took some of Steve Roger’s leftover serum samples from Project Rebirth.” Howard said quietly. Jordan was at a loss for words. But Howard continued on. “It backfired...as you can probably tell...it backfired and the serum made him sick. I thought it would help him...I thought he would turn out like Steve did..instead of...this.” Howard said quietly. Jordan tried to gather her thoughts. “So you tried to use the super soldier serum on him. And it made him sick.” She states more than asked. Howard just gave one nod. “Howard...why? You know that the serum didn’t work for everybody...and don’t deny it, we both know there were other test subjects before Rogers.” She stated in a sad voice. “You should’ve asked..or..or just waited.” Jordan told him. “I did what I thought I had to,” was all Howard could say in defence. “I...well, what are you going to do?” Jordan asked as she put her palm on her forehead, she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Howard didn’t say anything for a long while... “I...I don’t know what I’m going to do.” Was all he said. —————————————————————————- As the years passed by, Jordan continued with her usual routine, although now she had added visiting Arno as much as she could to her schedule, and since she didn’t have many friends, or a significant other, she had lots of time to spend with Arno, watching him grow up. It made her sad to know that Howard hardly ever visited his son at the centre..in fact, Arno didn’t even know who his parents were. And on the days when Howard and Maria did come, they only watched him from a distance. Jordan wanted to tell Arno that there were people out there, but she knew it wasn’t her place. She didn’t understand how the senior Stark’s could just neglect and abandon Arno like that, he was still their child. Jordan kept her job at Stark Industries, but she would never forget the day she found out about Arno, and her friendship with Howard suffered for it, and faded slowly as the years went by.

Before long, Jordan and Howard barely spoke anymore. She couldn’t move past the neglect and abandonment that Howard displayed, and Howard never managed to mend the wide bridge between them. The time where they were good friends was a memory fading into the far distance.


	3. 15 years later

Manhattan, New York, 1969

It was hard to believe that 14 years had gone by since Arno’s birth.

Jordan was now in her fifties, and almost everything in her life had remained constant; Her job at Stark Industries, her weekly visits with Arno, and Howard’s trips to the Arctic to find the Captain which now took place every 3 months. Jordan still continued to feel bad that Howard cared more about the long gone Captain than his own son, who was lonely and had begun to ask questions.

The highlight of Jordan’s week was by far visiting Arno. He was 14 years old, and still in the medical centre. The thing that broke Jordan’s heart was the fact that as the years went by and Arno got older, he stayed sick. One would think with the serum in his veins his health would’ve gotten better, but no such luck. Jordan was happy that his condition hadn’t worsened, but it wasn’t like it had gotten any better. 

Arno was a great kid, he was very smart, Jordan knew he had inherited that from Howard, and Arno had a good heart, but he was lonely. Howard and Maria never came with Jordan on her visits to the medical centre, and there visits were few and far between. Jordan asked Howard countless times to visit more, and tell his son who he was, before it was too late, before the bridge was burned beyond repair, but her pleas fell upon deaf ears, every time.

Jordan tried her best to be a companion for Arno, she hadn’t gotten married, and she had no children of her own, so she dedicated a lot of her time to Arno. As soon as he had turned 10 years old, Jordan, with the grudging permission from Howard and the medical staff, took him on little trips around New York. Once, she even took him to Canada to visit her parents. They had loved him, and it had briefly stopped them from teasing Jordan about when she would have children. Jordan’s mother told Jordan how Arno was like a little grandchild to them. Jordan could tel that being with her parents made Arno happy, Jordan’s mother was caring and motherly, fawning and fretting over Arno, and her dad and Arno got along perhaps a little too well, they were full of mischief that had Jordan shaking her head in amusement, Jordan’s dad was the closest thing Arno would have to a father figure. Jordan wanted to make sure he had as normal a childhood as possible, but even she knew that was a reach.  
Nothing was normal about this.

Jordan was walking a thin line, as far as she knew, Arno knew nothing about his birth and parentage. She knew that soon he would start to ask why she was the only one that came to visit him. In fact, he already started inquiring. And every time Jordan had to try and avoid the subject in a subtle way, without seeming obvious...but she had a feeling Arno knew exactly what she was doing, and it wouldn’t be long before he finally called her out on her bullshit. It was sad...and pitiful. So Jordan did her best to avoid the topic. But with Arno’s 15th birthday coming up in the following year, she would need to think fast.  
She needed to talk with Howard.

As the years had passed, Jordan’s friendship with Howard was strained. To be completely honest, friendship was a strong word.  
Jordan had some strong opinions about Howard and Maria’s essential neglect of their son. They had abandoned him, and the affects it had on Arno were starting to show. Jordan had told Howard how she felt, but she was often brushed off. Howard had wanted perfection, and he couldn’t face what he got. But Jordan maintained that if he would just sit down with Arno, he would find that his son was perfect just the way he was.  


“Okay Arno, I’ll be back next week!” Jordan called as she left Arno’s room.  
“Bye Jordan! Love you!” Arno called in response. Jordan smiled as she walked out.  
“Bye Sally,” Jordan said to the nurse standing near the reception desk. Sally Walters was one of Arno’s caretakers, and one of the few people that was vaguely aware of the situation Arno was in.  
“See you next week Jordan!” Sally called cheerfully...well, as cheerfully as she could under the circumstances of the visits. 

As Jordan headed home, she couldn’t help but think more and more about Arno’s situation, it made her upset thinking about it, but she couldn’t help herself. Tomorrow, she told herself that she would have a (yet another) conversation with Howard. 

Jordan unlocked the door to her house, and fell into a fitful sleep that was filled with nightmares.

The next day, Jordan went into work, she casually began working on some papers in preparation for the new innovation and product release, and a few things that needed to get done before the turn of the decade.  
She had been at work a few hours before she went to Howard’s office. She planned to talk to him again about Arno, she kept hoping that she would get through to him.

“Afternoon Howard,” Jordan tried to greet pleasantly.

Howard looked up from some blueprints. “Hi there, Jordan.” He said a bit awkwardly. It was a shame their friendship had been reduced to this. 

Jordan tried to quench the sadness that filled her mind when she thought about her friendship with Howard. Things could go back to normal if he just heard her out today.

But of course, he chose to throw and wrench in her plans.

“Jordan..” Howard started slowly. “Maria’s pregnant. She’s due for May, next year, 1970.” He said in a rush.

Jordan just stood there, completely cut off. Her mind rushed back to the last time she heard the words, “Maria’s pregnant.”

Jordan quickly snapped out of her thoughts. “Congratulations.” She said. 

But what did this mean for Arno?

“Will you finally tell Arno who you are?” She asked hopefully, she has always been an optimist.

“No.” Howard said swiftly, cutting off any hope Jordan had.

“What?! Why?!” She exclaimed. “Howard, he needs you, I can’t keep lying, he’ll know.” Jordan said worriedly. 

“Please...he’s your son. With this new baby coming, why can’t they both be together, don’t use one to replace the other.” Jordan tried to tell Howard.

“No, he’s better off where he is, he has the best care. I’ll pay for everything, private schooling, medical bills, but he doesn’t have to know.” Howard told Jordan.

Jordan was too shocked to speak, so she turned around and left.

June 2nd, 1970

Jordan woke up tired.  
She went through her regular morning routine, pinning up her long hair, and grabbing a quick breakfast. As she drove to work, she thought about how she would word her disappointment in Howard this time around.

She had recently had a few weeks off, and she had had some time to come to terms with the fact that Howard had another child. She had yet to see the baby, but she had seen from media coverage and TV that the Starks had welcomed a healthy baby boy into the world on May 29th 1970, Anthony Edward Stark.

Their first child. Or so the general public thought. 

Jordan was happy for Howard and Maria, but she didn’t understand how they could just neglect the fact that they had another son, one who would love a baby brother, or just even a friend other than one middle-aged woman or the other people at the medical centre.

Why couldn’t they raise the boys together?

Once Jordan arrived at work, she went through the security measures and checks. Stark Industries had been tight with their security ever since the radioactive incident of ‘68... and Jordan preferred not to talk about that.

She stopped briefly at her desk, said hello to some coworkers who welcomed her back from her brief leave, and then marched to Howard’s office. Maybe this new baby would open up his mind a little.

Before she could get there though, she was stopped by one of her coworkers, Jennifer. Jennifer was a very calm person, sane, quiet, respectful. So when Jordan saw her practically bouncing off the walls, she faltered, and wondered what could’ve gotten Jennifer so excited. Well, she was about to find out.

“Hi Jordan, welcome back!” Jennifer said.  
“Aren’t you chipper today.” Jordan said by way of greeting.  
“Of course I am, Jordan, there’s a new bundle of joy in the office!” Jennifer squeaked.  
“Bundle of joy?” Jordan wondered aloud, “if you mean the new car model we’ve been working on then I’m sure...”  
“No Jordan!” Jennifer said with exasperation. “Howard’s new BABY!” She continued.  
And that was when they got to the entrance of the main office, and in Howard’s arms was indeed a giggling bundle of joy.

Jordan just stood there gaping at the baby. She didn’t know Howard was going to bring him to the office to show off.  
“Hello Jordan!” Howard greeted with a small smile..  
Jordan quickly came to her senses and made a show of cooing over the baby, as she was aware of the crowded room.

After about half and hour of playing nice, Howard left the room to go to his private office. Jordan followed about 5 minutes after, just to not make it weird.

She approached the door, and heard the giggling from just inside. She closed the door softly and looked around for Howard.

She saw him sitting at his chair with the giggling baby. She didn’t waste any time.  
“So, no complications like Arno, huh.” She stated.  
“No, he’s perfect.” Howard said. Jordan didn’t know if she liked that answer.  
“Howard,” Jordan began to start the futile, one-sided conversation she’d been having with Howard for years. “You can’t ignore Arno just because he isn’t perfect, Howard! Nobody is!...He’s your son! Does that mean nothing? Jordan continued to pleaded.  
“I need an heir!” Howard shouted back. “I need someone to continue my legacy! That’s it.” He finished.

Jordan could not take it anymore, she needed to get out of there before she did something she’d regret. 

“I need a minute,” Jordan said quietly. She was going to go down the street to the coffee shop and sort out her thoughts.

Jordan looked back briefly before she opened the door and left the office without another word. Jordan knew Arno was lonely, and he would soon start searching for answers, with or without Jordan’s help. And once he found out what she’d been hiding, he would never forgive her. Jordan realized that she was just as bad as Howard. Jordan decided then and there that she would tell Arno about his family. He deserved the truth. Although she still felt like it wasn’t her place, what if the letter made things worse? What would she do after she told Arno? What would he do? For all she knew, Arno had been watching the news and didn’t even know that his family was right there, so close by, continuing on as if he never existed.  
Enough with the secrets.

Jordan made her way out the building, doing her best to avoid any coworkers. 

Many years later, Jordan would wonder if she should’ve just stayed inside the building that day, instead of going to sort out her thoughts about her boss at the coffee shop down the street.

Two things happened that day on June 2nd 1970; 

Jordan never made it to the coffee shop,

And Arno Stark never found out about his family.


	4. Chapter 4

Manhattan, New York, June 2nd, 1970

Jordan Andrews had just left the Stark Industries building after her argument with Howard Stark.

Jordan was confused and angry. Howard had become to obsessed with perfection and legacy. 

This brought her thoughts back to Arno, all she wanted was for him to feel loved, but she was between a rock and a hard place. 

Jordan realized she had stopped walking in the midst of her thinking. She quickly continued as it was starting to rain.  
She decided to take a shortcut to the coffee shop by cutting into an alleyway.

This was another decision she would regret decades later.

She turned into the alleyway, and after walking a few steps, she heard wailing.

She slowed down to see what was wrong.  
“Hello?...excuse me?......sir?...are you okay?” She asked quietly.  
“I...I need help.” The man said very quietly. Jordan crouched down in an attempt to hear the man better. 

Look where being a caring person got her. 

She was immediately knocked out from behind. And that’s all she remembered.

Time Unknown...1970

Jordan woke up very slowly, her head was sore, and she felt as if she was coming out from a fog. She did not know where she was. Wasn’t she on her way to the coffee shop?

Once her vision cleared up, she looked around and determined that she was in a room, it was dark, cold and smelly. She didn’t like it.

Jordan didn’t know how long she’d been in the room, had it been days? Weeks? So when she heard someone unlocking the door, she flinched with fear and dread. A man walked in, he was wearing all black and had on a black mask..all Jordan could see were his eyes. A tall thin woman followed into the room and stood behind him, she said nothing, only watching Jordan with calculating eyes.  
“Get up.” The man said in a Russian accent. Jordan wondered if she was in Russia. The man roughly grabbed Jordan’s arm after she failed to move. That’s when her mouth began to move a mile a minute.  
“Why?! Where are you taking me?! What do you want?!” Jordan asked, scared.  
Nobody answered.

Jordan was led (read: dragged) down so many hallways with an abundance of twists and turns that she lost count. Her head pounded. Then finally they approached two huge metal doors. The doors opened as they approached, and Jordan got her first look at the room that she would get to be very familiar with in the coming decades. 

The first thing Jordan saw was a stretcher in the middle of the room with a bunch of technical stands and IV surrounding it. In the back behind the bed in a room with see through glass, were tons of computers and file cabinets, and a lot of other technological items that Jordan deemed out of her area of expertise. She wanted to cry.  
All of a sudden Jordan’s other arm was grabbed by a man she hadn’t seen when she walked in, and they began to drag her towards the stretcher.  
“HEY! Wait what are you doing?! Let me go! What do you want with me?!” Jordan’s screams fell on deaf ears, the struggle was pitiful, she was weak, her head hurt, in fact her whole body hurt. She was immediately strapped down to the stretcher.  
After a while she stopped struggling, and that was when she heard the lady from earlier speaking with a thick Russian accent.

“Test Subject: Female, looks to be about mid fifties. First ever Red Room experiment, in which we will be testing The Red Room version of the super soldier serum. First dose: December 17th 1970.”

Jordan didn’t understand what anybody was saying, or what was said in response. She heard some whirring sounds, and that’s when she saw the huge needles containing some sort of red substance coming towards her. Her cries for help were ignored. “Why do you want me?! Please wait?!” Jordan wondered helplessly why they chose her, she was 53 years old, why could they possibly want to experiment on her?! Was this Hydra? Jordan’s thoughts may have been foggy, but she was pretty sure Hydra had been defeated back in the 40s by Captain America. So what was this?

As the needles pierced her skin, Jordan screamed like never before, she had never felt pain like this. After a while Jordan’s hold on to consciousness began to disappear, she welcomed unconscious, just so that she could escape the pain for a short while. She was terrified and she didn’t know why this was happening to her, or even what was happening to her. She just wanted to go home.

Days later....

“Test Complete, subject currently remains alive. The particular dose of the serum has made the subject appear younger and stronger by about 10 years. Another dose will be administered in the coming weeks.” The Red Room is confident that this particular version of the serum will be better than that of the American’s Project Rebirth.

Jordan woke up in immense pain, her vision was blurry and she was dizzy and disoriented. It took everything in her to sit up, and she was out of breath afterwords. After sitting up for at least 15 minutes, she took another look around the room. She realized it was a different room than last time, as it had a toilet and a small sink in the far corner. It also had a mirror above the sink, but that might’ve been reflective glass, someone could be watching her. 

At this point Jordan really looked at herself in the mirror. She looked different, younger, less body fat, and her muscles were more pronounced. She looked at her face, and it was as if it was 1955 again. She looked like she did back when she was 38. She was supposed to be 53.  
Jordan was terrified...what had happened? What had they done? She tried to force herself up to get a closer look, and then she realized that she was chained to the bed..she could do little more than sit up. Jordan began to panic. She didn’t like what was happening, she wanted to physically step outside her body, that was how uncomfortable she was. She clawed at her face, her whole body hurt, as if someone had stretched her skin beyond what was strictly safe, everything felt right and...wrong.

She wanted to pull at the chain but she was so weak, and in so much pain. So she laid down again and tried to go to sleep, maybe this was all a sick dream. ‘Your better than that Jordan,’ she thought to herself, ‘this is real’.  
Jordan wanted to asses her situation more, but her head was pounded, and her arms felt like they weighed hundreds of pounds. She put her feet back on the bed and once again succumbed to the darkness.

The Following Months...moving into 1971..

It was becoming a constant now, that horrid room with the stretcher.

Jordan felt like she made a trip there every day at least once. Everyday there was more pain, more needles, more darkness. Her sense of time and awareness was blurring.  
Jordan wanted to fight back, she wanted to escape, she wanted to leave this place and never look back, but she was weak, and afraid.  
Whatever they were doing to her seemed to be pleasing them, but Jordan was miserable, angry and sad.  
She was angry at herself for arguing with Howard that day, she was angry at herself for leaving the building, she was angry at herself for not just going home, and most of all she was angry at herself for stopping to help that psycho in that alley.  
She felt hopeless, what did she have that these people wanted? She was a 53 year old technician for goodness sake! This stuff didn’t happen to technicians!

Right now she was once again chained to the bed, after a particularly long session in that room. She was once again tired and in pain, so nothing new. She sat there, and sat some more, waiting to see if those people would come back, but they didn’t. So she went to sleep. That seemed to be all she did when she was here...sleep and feel pain.

“Tests have been successful. subject remains alive. 5 more sessions to administer 10 more doses, and then we will begin training.”

Jordan was subjected to that awful room again 5 more times before she stopped being dragged there for a couple weeks. She sat in the tiny room chained to the cot, just waiting until somebody would come and get her next. It was a horrible cycle.

“Tests were sucessful and are now complete. Out of 50 subjects, subject 51 is the only one that survived. Taking out some of the components and adding others proved to be sucessful. Subject appears to be in mid 20s and in peak physical condition. Subject will be a perfect spy, assassin and weapon. Training will begin.”

One day...night, she didn’t know anymore since it always dark. The man and woman came to get her, they unlocked the chain and dragged her out the room.  
“Today you will begin combat training to serve the Red Room, if you fail to comply we will use force.” The woman said with a heavy accent.  
And so it began.

Every time Jordan was awake, she was training in brutal combat, or learning to speak Russian and a bunch of other languages.  
Anytime she beat one of the trainers she was awarded food. So almost never. Every time she refused to comply, she would suffer a merciless and brutal beating.

So much time passed, Jordan did not know what was happening. Soon all she knew was combat, fighting, and a tiny classroom where she was forced to look at dictionaries and a blackboard with different phrases on it in different languages. She was forced to learn stealth tactics and to use a variety of weapons, guns, swords, knives, a bow and arrow. Before the training sessions began the trainers would take pocket knives and cut her, forcing her to train while injured. Although she found that the injuries we’re always healed by the next morning. 

Jordan could not take it anymore, she wanted out, she had wanted out for a long time. So she started to resist more. Although it didn’t get her far most of the time. She found that she had a newfound strength, if she had ever punched someone before it was nothing like now, she was so strong, when during combat training, she could lift her trainers up above her head.  
She was beginning to hate her days though. All she did was wake up, train, go to class, train, class, train, food (if she behaved, and didn’t act out) and bed. Then it would repeat and repeat and repeat.

Jordan acted out so much that she often went to bed punished, in immense pain, and without food.

“Subject is beginning to act out and show signs of defection. Punishments have been administered, but subject has too much freedom of mind. We will move forward with the brainwashing techniques. Minor, and if needed, severe.”

The punishments got worse and more severe every time Jordan acted out. She would be forced to stitch up her own wounds, but if they were not as deep they would just send her to her cell without any medical treatment. 

Jordan was soon introduced to two more different rooms, one of them was all white, and the other all red. They had white and red screens respectively. She always went into those rooms one after the other.  
Every time after she left the White Room, she remembered less and less of her life, she started to forget her time at Stark Industries, and her time with A..Arno, and those visits were usually the most memorable.  
Every time she left The Red Room, she remembered doing ballet. She didn’t know when she did ballet, or how to do ballet. But that was what she knew. In those rooms she would also see videos or movies, with the subtitles on, but, she was almost sure that the characters were saying the wrong thing.

Soon after, all she knew was Combat Training, ballet, and the classroom.

“Where do you belong?”  
“The Red Room.”  
“Where?”  
“The Red Room.”  
“Very Good.”

This continued for years, and before long, Jordan Andrews faded into the far distance, and all that was left was the shell of a once happy person.  
A person who every once in a while, had flashes of a life, and the people in it, but who had lived that life?  
Subject 51 certainly didn’t know.

What was left was a product of the Red Room, a cold, ruthless, vicious, assassin. 

And that was all.


	5. The First Assignment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, first time I’m doing a summary in a while. This chapter does have some mentions of horrible treatment, and descriptions of a murder, so I will mention that. If you’ve seen the MCU movies then you probably know the story of the Winter Soldier, so this may be nothing new.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter Jordan goes on her first mission. Since the new Black Widow movie is coming out I’ve been interested in the different outfits. So I searched up some rejected concept art for Natasha Romanoff, and I’m going to insert pictures of rejected suit designs as the ones that my character will wear. The particular suit she wears in this chapter and throughout her time in the red room can be found in this link: https://www.pinterest.it/pin/810999845383065789/

October, 1971

It had been a year since Jordan had been captured by The Red Room. The missing persons case that was dedicated to her had long since been closed, another one unsolved in the sea of people who would go missing in the 1970s. Everyday Jordan forgot more and more about her life before the Red Room, and everyday she became more and more empty and cold, completely at the mercy of her superiors.  
At this point Jordan could fluently speak Russian, although other languages were still coming along. She was continuing to learn how to be the best spy, learning to gather intel, appear innocent but still deadly when need be, and how to completely eliminate threats. She was getting used to her super strength, learning how to accommodate for it, and use it to incapacitate threats, they had yet to send her on any missions or assignments yet, but that would come soon. 

Her situation was one that was unique, the Red Room didn’t usually use all of their brainwashing techniques on their students, so they were taking a big risk when they used methods that were more in tune with how the legendary Winter Soldier was handled.  
But they couldn’t be too sure. They were wary of Jordan’s defection because they captured her when she was in her mid-fifties, she had an established personality, opinions, political views...she was her own person. The usual Red Room recruits were taken at birth, or as very young orphaned children, they didn’t have opinions, they were nobodies that the Red Room could lead, and train, and make sure these girls catered to the whims of the Red Room, they could mould the girls’ personalities and make sure they thought what they were doing was right.

Jordan wasn’t like that...the higher ups in the Red Room had given her a different, stronger serum, while the girls that made it to the Black Widow Ops program were given something to make them enhanced...it was nothing compared to what they gave Jordan.  
They capacity and amount of doses they gave Jordan put her among the likes of Captain America and the Winter Soldier, because of that added strength, they couldn’t risk defection, it would ruin their plans.  
So while the rest of the students did not need brainwashing, they beat the sense of self out of Jordan, they brainwashed and brainwashed, and put her into the White Room and the Red Room as much as they needed too, anything to get her to forget that she had ever lived a life outside the Red Room. They didn’t change any of her memories of her growing up, they were just gone...locked away in the most inner parts of her mind.

The people that ran the Red Room were confidant in their abilities to keep Jordan suppressed and under their thumbs, they were confidant that she would never defect...ever. 

Jordan’s day had changed since the first few months of her time in the organization. She still trained in combat and espionage, and learned new languages, but the Red Room decided to have her train the younger girls. 

Sometimes it went “well”, sometimes it didn’t.

They liked Jordan training the younger girls because of her super strength, speed and accelerated healing. It forced the other girls to work harder, to really push themselves. They were tasked with trying to take Jordan down, not kill her, but injure her long enough to get her into a compromising position. If they succeeded, Jordan was punished, if Jordan succeeded, the girls were punished, whether it was bodily harm, or food was withheld, nobody would be leaving in good spirits, but it wasn’t like they knew any different. It was sad because the times that they were able to take Jordan down were few and far between, that meant a lot of nights were spent hungry.

The girls didn’t know the specifics about Jordan, they didn’t know her name or what had been done to her, they didn’t know how old she was, and they didn’t ask questions about it. They just assumed that she was an older student due to the fact that she looked like she was in her mid-20s and she certainly fought like it. 

Soon though, the times Jordan trained the younger girls started to be less and less, this happened after she broke one of the girls’ arms. The first had let out a blood curdling scream of anguish, and this had caused Jordan to snap out of her brainwashed space, she began to attack the guards and other trainers...it took 6 of them to take her down, and haul her back to her cell. That day wasn’t pretty, they left her in the room without any food or water for 48 hours, her accelerated metabolism disagreeing heavily. She was desperate for food, but after that you could never tell just by looking at her face. She yearned for the bland brown mush she was served, anything to fill her stomach. 

She didn’t resurface from her brainwashed state again after that.

December 2nd, 1971

Today was the day.

Jordan would be sent on her first mission. They wouldn’t be sending her far, and they would have guards tailing her, but she would be more or less on her own. 

Her task was to take out a small business owner that would be attending a crowded event. It was a test, nobody would miss him...at least the Red Room thought so..they told her that he was just an unfortunate victim that they needed to take out for the greater good...not that she registered that part of what they were saying.  
Now...that was what they told Jordan...but the Red Room had different intentions..they always did, it had come to their attention that this particular business man knew certain information about the...immoral side of the operations the Red Room orchestrated...Let’s just say he somehow found out that the Red Room didn’t specialize in ballet...they needed to take him out.

Call it...tying up loose ends if you will.

It was a simple task...simple for the Red Room anyway, it was mostly to make sure that Jordan could follow orders quickly, efficiently and effectively without being compromised, or disobeying. 

She had gotten her orders, all she needed was a sniper. Hide in the woods behind the event hall, wait for the business owner, time the shot perfectly, and shoot him without hitting anybody else, and if anybody else got hurt...well it was collateral damage, the point was that he die, and that the murder wouldn’t be traced back to Jordan. See...simple.

So the time came, the guards gave Jordan her first suit for mission..and off they went. 

They drove in an indiscreet car in the middle of the night. All the guards stayed in the car as Jordan made her way into the woods. She easily climbed into one of the many tall trees, her suit was black, with just a little bit of red, and she had on her black ski mask, perfect to blend in with the night.

Jordan gathered her sniper, made sure there was one bullet loaded and the silencer was on. She crouched down on a sturdy branch, and waited. She had noticed that on the side of the sniper was a scuffed up word...STARK.  
For a split second she thought she knew what that was supposed to mean, or what that name was...but then a sharp pain came over her head, nearly knocking her out of position and the thought quickly faded. The blank stare was back.

Jordan had been waiting for about an hour, in the same exact position...this was part of her stealth training and espionage, she needed to be able to sit in the same exact positions for hours, maybe days, in a perfect stakeout. There was no tolerance for error in the Red Room. She needed to be still, she could not get tired, and anyway, with the serum she didn’t need as much sleep as everybody else. 

Jordan waited for 15 more minutes, not making a single sound, not a single twitch, she was completely still and in position. And that was when the man..target, walked in. 

Jordan took a deep breath..

And pulled the trigger. 

The shot was silent, until the bullet passed through the window...and straight through the mans back and chest into the floor, he died immediately.

Nobody ever saw Jordan in the midst of the chaos..it was as if she was never there. After she shot the man, she climbed down the tree with a Grace most people could only dream of, and she stalked off back towards the car.

After her assignment, she never paid a second thought to that man..he would be just another nameless face in the sea of kills in the years to come. 

This was just the beginning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is appreciated it is my first story so I’m trying to make it interesting, I had this thought of this whole elaborate story and I just wanted to get it down before I forgot so yeah lol.


	6. 20 Years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyway, I told you guys I would be doing outfits, so ya. This is the outfit that Jordan wears for combat training, ignore the guns, she doesn’t have guns while in the training rooms, only for missions, and target practice. Link to picture: https://br.pinterest.com/pin/191966002855151453/

December 16th, 1991

Howard and Maria Stark died today. 

There wasn’t anything Jordan could’ve done to stop it though, years later she would feel sorry about that, but today she would feel nothing. 

Jordan had been on a covert mission in Jamaica, it had been scheduled to last a few months, due to the fact that she needed time to infiltrate and get into the inner circle of the mob boss that she needed to get information from, then eventually kill. To avoid being thought of as a suspect, she would make it seem as if he was murdered by a rival mob boss, and in the chaos she would eventually slip away.

She had actually just returned from the mission. And due to the fact that she was out for so long, the brainwashing techniques were starting to fade just a little bit, her handlers would remedy that soon, but for now she was sitting in a chair in the hall outside the training room, and two guards were talking.

“Did you hear? Howard Stark died today. Car accident they said...faulty brakes.”

“Don't be naive...it was made to look like faulty brakes..Don't say anything, but I heard they got the Winter Soldier to do it."

The guard chuckled. “The Winter Soldier? He's just a myth, like the boogie man, something they make up to scare little children to sleep. He doesn't exist. A ghost story. Besides, where did you even hear that?”

“That's what you think...all I know is...that accident...was no accident. The Winter Soldier is as real as this assassin in front of us...and she's scary.”

“Hey man don’t say that too loud she might kill you.” The other guard said half joking and half serious.

“I doubt it, they probably put her on the drugs as soon as she got back here...she probably can’t even comprehend what we’re saying.” The first guard responded with a flick of his hand.

It had been 20 years since Jordan was kidnapped, and by now, she had learned over 30 languages..including Russian. To be honest, it wasn’t hard learning them when you were forced to sit in a classroom for the better part of the day with little 10 year olds learning Languages like Russian and Latin. Jordan registered what the guards were talking about, and she knew they mentioned her..but she didn’t have the mental capacity to understand and comprehend that her previous employer had just been murdered.

She heard the name Stark, it hadn’t been the first time, and probably not the last..but it was the first time in 20 years that she paused after she heard the name. She felt that sharp pain in her head again, the one that happened every time she thought about something other than the Red Room. She tried to think about that name, that name meant something to her...right? She wasn’t sure, and the pain in her head was quickly becoming unbearable, and everything was blurry...as in, the guards were becoming blurry, and the floor was looking really comfortable right now, blurry. 

By now the guards had noticed that Jordan was swaying a bit, and looking...more aware. They knew she couldn’t do anything because she was shackled and shot up with drugs specially designed for her, but still, in the interest of living, it was well known throughout all the “staff” that if you didn’t have to fight Jordan, you shouldn’t.

In 20 years, Jordan had made something of a reputation among Hydra and the Red Room, she had brushes with people from Hydra...nobody as good as her, but some. She had never worked with them, what she did was more covert KGB operations, gathering intelligence, information, secrets, and kills...So. Many. Kills. Jordan was like a card, and the Red Room kept their cards close to their chest. She had only heard about the Winter Soldier when she “came up for air” as Madame B had once referred to it as. 

20 years had gone by, but Jordan didn’t know that, to her it was just another day of fulfilling orders. Same as before, time meant absolutely nothing to her. New recruits had come and gone...gone where? She didn’t know...but then again what did she know? 

She trained some new recruits, there was this 7 year old girl with vibrant red hair, she had potential, another one with blonde hair, she was good too.

So far The Red Room hadn’t used the serum on anybody else, maybe it was the fact that they’d tried it on 10 more subjects and they all died or went crazy and had to be killed for the “greater good”. The Red Room had decided to go back to the regularly scheduled program of training the girls without enhancements, or very light enhancements that made them just a bit stronger and age slower, and that was only if they made it into the Black Widow Ops. If they didn’t, they either were killed in combat training before they could get there, or they just didn’t qualify and had to rely on good old natural skill.  
Jordan was the only super soldier in the Red Room, an outlier...an anomaly...a freak.

Her strength was unmatched, and her reputation scary. If the trainees wanted to make it to the Black Widow Ops, they needed to last in a fight against Jordan for at least 30 minutes, that’s how it would be determined, so far nobody had beat her, and only 3 girls in the last 20 years had managed to last 30 minutes against her before Jordan broke their leg or something...it wasn’t her fault though, it’s not like the handlers told her to go easy or anything. They just said fight...so she did. They usually stopped after bones started to break though, that wasn’t very efficient. She didn’t like the girls’ screams. They had started getting Jordan to train the girls back in the late 70s, they wanted to be able to control the competition, before that, they would have the girls fight to the death, but then they realized that it was a waste of good operatives, so now they just needed to last 45 minutes.

December 31st, 1991.

So...long story short, the KGB disbanded.

Now, was that the end of Jordan’s life of espionage? Would they dispose of her?

Absolutely Not. She wasn’t that lucky.

Madame B told her that she would be a “freelance operative”...and by freelance she meant Jordan would still work with the Red Room.

So, same song and dance. More lies, more brainwashing, more killing, more emptiness. It seemed to be a never ending cycle of madness in Jordan’s messed up mind. It was pure turmoil. She hated it, but she only hated it when she was mentally aware enough to hate it.

The brainwashing had really done a number, so had the slow progress of desensitization. Jordan was as hollow as she was emotionless.  
It was a sad life.

She still remembered the whole Black Widow Ops test from a few days ago, a week maybe. Something didn’t feel right...the screams tortured Jordan every time she thought about it. Was she doing what was right. If she was doing all this thinking then maybe she needed another trip to the White Room.

Right now Jordan was sitting in her cell, awaiting her next assignment, something about reconnaissance, she would be going to Britain to get some information on their defences and armies, it would probably take a few months, nothing new really.

Jordan waited another few hours, then she left.

The brainwashing they put her through was all about breaking her sense of self. She guessed that she was self aware...and she knew how to act like a person, she wasn’t an animal...most of the time. That’s why they could send her on recon missions, once they got to her 20 years ago, she lost hope that she would escape, she retreated inside herself and that’s when they pounced...when she was vulnerable...she had fought and resisted the brainwashing for years, but it was too much.

She knew her brainwashing was nothing like the Winter Soldier’s though, it sounded rough. Cryo freeze, electric shocks, it sounded like a downright disaster.

Although some days it was easier to think than others, today for example, she knew she had a mission to do, she knew her job was to gather as much intel as possible, get in, get out, and you better have something to show for it.

So off she went.

It was easy enough, she liked these missions most, if liked could be used in this situation. She avoided killing anyone, and no one found her out. A simple dead camera, or unconscious guard as a result of a gas filled Widow’s bite did the job. She had a baggy full of USB’s by the time she was done, so she would avoid punishment, when she got home...home?...h-home. Right.

The mission went according to plan, as they usually did, and Jordan eventually headed back to the Red Room, as she sat, shackled in the back of an armoured car, she looked through the small window and thought about what it would be like if she, had stayed in Britain, she had become friends with a girl there...the Red Room registered Jordan as roommates with the girl for her cover story. This mission had actually lasted a few months, her roommate’s name was Nina, Nina...Bailey. Nina was the best friend Jordan had ever had. She was full of life, she was fun..and for the first time in 20 years, Jordan felt free, she felt like a person again. She felt alive when Nina invited her out to a small party with friends, Jordan felt like she fit right in, but in the end she was just fooling herself. She was an operative, a creation, a killer, and this mission would end, just like they all did. Jordan would only taint people like Nina. So when “Joanne Simmons” (Jordan’s fake identity), left to go back to Canada to “finish her studies” (a fake story), Jordan figured it was probably for the best.

Jordan eventually got back to her cell, in the dark cold corner of the Red Room, where she would sit for days until the next assignment or training or class...and she would forget Nina, just like she forgot everybody else. The strain on her mind to remember was too much, it caused her too much pain. So she stuffed it into a corner, she compartmentalized.

The last thought Jordan had before the pain knocked her unconscious, was about a teenage boy with blonde hair, sitting in a hospital bed. The thought was random and came out of left field...but it made her smile in the midst of the agony and she succumbed to the darkness.

April 4th, 2000

Today was the day that Jordan had to fight the next year of girls for the Black Widow Ops test. It happened every year when the particular class would turn 16. 

There were 20 girls in this class, and Jordan noticed that the redhead and her friend, the blonde, were in the class. She didn’t think much about it...but then again, she couldn’t really think.

They had dragged her from her cell again, but not before a trip to the White Room and the Red Room again. They took her to a large training room, and ordered her to wait.

About 10 minutes later the lady that seemed to be the head of things ever since Jordan came to The Red Room, stalked in with the 20 girls following behind her.

“As you all know, today is test day, you have been preparing for this for a long time, if you last in combat against your opponent..you will graudate to the Black Widow Ops program, if not, you will remain at the lower level of Department X. You must last for 30 minutes...We begin now.”

The girls replied together. “Yes, Madame B.”

“Good...do not disappoint me...and Natalia? None of that nonsense you tried to pull the other day or you will be severely punished, understand?”

“Yes, Madam B.” The redhead said, as she looked down at her shoes.

Madame B nodded, and they began.

Jordan had fought 15 girls so far, and none of them had lasted more than 15 minutes except 2, they lasted 20 minutes. Still not enough.  
Out of the first 15, there were a few that needed to be taken away to the infirmary, and the remaining 5 looked uneasy. Numbers 16, 17 and 18 didn’t last, and with blank faces they walked off the mat to sit on the side and watch. 

Number 19 was the blonde, she put up a good fight, nearly good enough to last, but at 25 minutes, she couldn’t hold out any longer against Jordan...she had to admit defeat. Oh well, at least she bowed out before Jordan snapped her neck or something. She walked off the mat looking disgruntled and very angry, but she knew better than to throw a fit with one look from Madame B.

Now, it was finally time for the last girl to go, the readhead...Natalia, that was what Madame B had called her. Before she stepped up to the mat she detoured to her friend...”It’s okay Yelena..” She tried to comfort the still sulking girl. Yelena just looked the other way without responding, so Natalia walked toward the mat. That was the end of that friendship, oh well, there was no room for friends in the Red Room. Natalia stepped up to the mat, cracked her neck and rolled her ankles in warmup. Then they began.

The fight was brutal, Jordan kept Natalia on her toes and in turn Natalia kept Jordan on hers. The fight was hard for Natalia, Jordan noticed, she preyed on Natalia’s weaknesses, and pounced when she tried to buy herself time, Jordan used every opening, just as she’d been taught to. The Red Room was never about fairness, they taught Jordan to fight dirty whenever possible. Natalia fought defensively, trying her best to incapacitate Jordan. But Jordan had very few weaknesses, she also had 20 years of experience over the girls, not to mention the super soldier serum. Jordan fought hard, she grabbed Natalia’s head and used the momentum to knee her in the stomach, then she did the same to her nose. While Natalia was recovering from that, Jordan dodged a high kick, slid under Natalia’s leg, and pulled her other leg out from under her, she fell to the ground, but still got back up. 

The handlers had to hand it to the Romanova girl, with every punch, drop kick and slide Jordan hit on her, Natalia kept getting back up, she had a fiery spirit, it would help her in missions to come. However they didn’t know if she would last against Jordan. Jordan and Natalia continued to fight. Jordan dodged a punch, jumped to the left, then moved forward and elbowed Natalia in the neck while simultaneously kicking her in the knee. Natalia was distracted by that so Jordan took that opportunity to drop kick Natalia, and as she fell, Jordan punched her twice in the stomach.

The timer was at 25 minutes, and when it reached 30, the fight wouldn’t stop, it was supposed to last an hour, but it never did, not when the girls were getting beat so badly.

26, 27, 28, 29...the handlers were impressed, Natalia was visibly tired and run down, but she kept going. 

Jordan wasn’t tired at all. She was made to be able to endure hours of fighting, so this wasn’t really anything to her. However, she was impressed with this last girl. She took Jordan’s hits, trying to block some of them, but it was good enough to withstand the time she had.

Finally, 30 minutes had passed on the clock.

Madame B signalled to the handlers to not say anything, she wanted to see how long Natalia could endure the fight. Now all Natalia was doing was attempting to dodge the attacks, her agility, gracefulness and nimbleness helped her, she was top in the class after all.

Soon the clock hit 45 minutes and that was when it happened...Natalia was so tired, and she signalled to Madame B that she was done...she surrendered...However Jordan did not see this signal, with one quick hit, Jordan flung Natalia on to her back. None of them saw it coming, that was how good Jordan was. Natalia landed hard on her arm and leg with a sickening snap that echoed throughout the training room. Natalia screamed in agonizing pain. 

Jordan flinched at the scream and immediately stopped fighting. 

45 minutes...that was a record for the Red Room. Nobody had lasted that long before. Madame B was pleased. However a certain student was not, nobody saw as Yelena stomped out of the room.

“Take her to the infirmary.” Madame B ordered the guards.

Jordan was left confused, standing there as the guards roughly dragged Natalia out of the room.

“She'll make a fine operative, won’t she? Especially when we get the Winter Soldier to start training her. Nothing like you of course though...You're my special little creation.”

Madame B laughed as she said that to Jordan. Then she walked out without so much as a backwards glance. 

Jordan stood there for a long time...and as she waded through the murky waters of her mind, she tried to think of a time where she had felt less empty.

She couldn’t remember one.


	7. A Run-In

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here I am again with the outfits🥲This is the link to the outfit that Jordan is wearing when she fights the Winter Soldier in this chapter: https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/673569688011539558/

August 8th, 2014.

Another few years had passed...decades? Jordan didn’t know, every time she looked in the mirror she saw the same face that hadn’t changed since November 1st 1970. No...this was ridiculous, time had to have passed by.

These days they were sending Jordan to the White Room and the Red Room less and less. They must’ve been getting sloppy, either that or they thought that there wasn’t a need anymore, by now she should surely be fully under their thumbs. But nevertheless, she was thinking a lot more, though remembering, not so much. 

Today, she was supposed to go to some city...Washington? Yeah that was it. Somebody needed to die...again. Multiple people apparently.

Jordan got ready. 

She checked her sniper, rifles, and handguns, made sure she had plenty of knives at her disposal, smoke bombs, and shurikens (throwing stars), she was really good with those. But then again she was good with everything. 

Today Jordan felt a bit raw, she felt more free, and self aware than she had in a long time. She would complete the mission of course but, she didn’t feel the need to, this might’ve been the first time she felt like just walking off into the distance instead of completing an assignment. 

This time Jordan didn’t leave in an armoured car, she left in a Mercedes. Covert, blend in, they said. Anyway.

She was driving on this bridge when she saw another armoured car. Now that got her to put her defences up, she wasn’t working with anybody...had this person had come to take her out? She didn’t think so. Jordan switched lanes and made it a priority to get off that bridge.

A few things happened that day.

Explosions, gunshots, some redhead (did she know her? Jordan had heard that one of the spies had defected and escaped, but she didn’t know who.), some blonde guy with a frisbee (Captain America for sure..apparently he was alive again. Imagine. Yeah, the Red Room was not happy about that little piece of information.), some guy with wings, (Don’t ask), andddd....The Winter Soldier?!

Ohhh...The Winter Soldier. Yeah. Jordan had heard some guards say he had a mission, those guards were so loud, and clearly not aware of their surroundings. It was something about taking down S.H.I.E.L.D. S.H.I.E.L.D?...S.H.I.E.L.D. Jordan had to really dig deep to remember those missions. Jordan thinks that she’s infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D at least 5 times in the last 20 years, never to kill anybody, but always to hack them, or personally go to get information. It’s a wonder nobody ever noticed it was her coming back, maybe it’s because the missions were spaced out so well. Anyway, Jordan had orders. Orders she needed to follow because she wanted food when this mission would be done in a few weeks. And these people were messing her plans up. She needed to get to the other side of the street, because intel was in that building. But with the Winter Soldier raining down bullets into the road like there was no tomorrow, that posed as a problem. She needed to get him out of the way, whatever it took, well, that was what her handlers said to do when someone got in the way. 

Jordan quickly formed a plan. She pulled out a handgun from her backpack, which was part of her whole “harmless civilian” look, but anyway. She pulled it out, made sure the safety was off, and with one pull of the trigger, she shot at the soldier.

The bullet ended up hitting his goggles, one out of the two lenses, the red haired lady hit the other lens. The red haired lady looked around, but by then Jordan had ducked back under her car. 

Now the soldier was shooting at the street again...it looked like red hair lady, Captain America with his oversized frisbee, and the bird man were trying to attack the soldier...and hold on...he had more people with him that were shooting at the street. 

These people were clearly outnumbered, Jordan needed her sniper. 

One by one she picked off the guards behind the Winter soldier with deadly accuracy, until it was just him. 

And that’s when he jumped off the bridge, and onto a car. Jordan took this as her opportunity to run across the street, while he was still free-falling off the bridge.

Unfortunately for her, she was still halfway across the street when he landed on the car. Jordan heard someone yelling at her to get out of the way and run, but at that point in time the soldier had fired three shots at her in succession. Jordan dodged all the bullets with expert grace and agility. If she had any hope of getting across this street, she needed to stop this guy, or at least slow him down. 

Jordan sprinted at the soldier in a zigzag, expertly but also narrowly avoiding bullets. As soon as she was close enough she took a running leap at the soldier.

She grabbed the side of the barrel of the gun and pulled back the ejection port so that the rest of the bullets spilled out before they could be fired, all while taking her left knee and driving it into the soldier’s stomach, as he was doubled over she grabbed the back handle of the gun and roughly yanked it out of his grip, hit him twice over the head with it, then threw it far enough behind her that he couldn’t reach it. 

Now it was hand to hand. Jordan could not risk him overpowering her if she took the time to get a gun from her backpack.

Jordan narrowly missed a punch, but that unfortunately put her right in line for a knee to her nose, she recovered quickly and elbowed the soldier in the neck, while sliding under him to jab her hand in the back of his knee so he would fall. It was like this for a while, the both of them fighting on top of the car, until the soldier dealt a mighty blow to The left side of Jordan’s head. Unfortunately it the weak side, because lately her handlers had switched over to putting a helmet over her head that gave her an electric shock. It was very painful.

Jordan immediately doubled over and rolled off the car, she was seeing stars and the pain was unimaginable. 

But even through the immense pain, Jordan knew it would be in her best interest to pretend as if she was unconscious, so to avoid another fight between her and the soldier, she kept perfectly still, it was no problem really, the Red Room had taught her how to play dead and fake unconsciousness. 

What she didn’t factor in was the fact that the pain would actually knock her out. Combined with that hit, and her head hitting the street as she fell off the car, the pain was excruciating, unlike anything she’d ever felt, even from her handlers. Her mind was swirling around, it was unbelievable, she couldn’t hold on much longer. She again succumbed to the darkness.

The soldier was quickly getting tired of this fight, this lady had nearly overpowered him about 6 times in the 5 minutes they’d been fighting, he needed to incapacitate her, so he hit her head with his metal arm, and that was that. He stalked off the car once he felt this woman had been dealt with. Now onto that blonde man and his friends.

Brief POV from Natasha 

Natasha saw this whole fight happen, at first she had yelled at the woman to get out of the way, she didn’t know who that woman was, or where she learned to fight like that, and she was frozen to her spot as she watched the two battle on top of the car. She didn’t know where Steve or Sam were, but she was focused on this fight. It was in her nature to find out about things she didn’t understand.

Then she saw the blow that the Soldier dealt to that lady’s head...With the metal arm. Natasha internally winced, cause I mean yikes.

The lady fell off the car, clearly down for the count, and Natasha would’ve checked on her had there not been more pressing matters at hand, say...the Winter Soldier who was currently stalking toward her.

End Natasha’s POV

Jordan slowly opened her eyes. Her head hurt like a bitch, that’s the first thing she registered. 

She slowly lifted her head, she was in the street, it was empty now, but it was a wreck.

She must have been hit with something hard because she could barely remember anything. Why was she here? Why was the street destroyed, why was there so much screaming in the distance?

Jordan had been hit a lot during her time at the Red Room, but never like this. Never had she been hit so hard that her mind was completely and utterly wiped after. They had never managed to wipe all her memories in one sitting. But this was different.

Jordan woke up and had no idea who she was. And not just no idea of her past life...she had no idea what she was doing on this street. Something was wrong.

Jordan didn’t remember fighting, she didn’t remember the Red Room, she didn’t even remember what her assignment was. 

Her only thought was to get out of there...to run.

Brief Natasha POV

Good Lord, Natasha never wanted to fight the soldier again, that idiot shot her! 

And after all that hard work that the lady on the car did back there, now the soldier and Steve were having a conversation?!

Oh wait, no. He was going to attack Steve again. Natasha grabbed a gun that she knew had loaded bombs in it and fired.

It blasted the soldier back a few steps, and fortunately Sam came and knocked him over. Took him long enough.

But then the soldier threw a smoke bomb and ran.

Oh well, Natasha was too injured to chase him again. For now. They would get him.

Natasha wanted to know who that lady was.

She held onto her shoulder and walked back over to the bridge where the car was, she circled around and found...nothing.

The lady was gone.

End Natasha’s POV

Jordan ran, and ran and ran...she had been running for quite a while, and things had slowly started to come back to her, she remembered that she had been on a mission. She tempered being instructed to do something. People were looking at her. She needed to find somewhere secluded.

Jordan entered a little side street beside a subway, she was wearing a backpack. Maybe there was something in it that would help her.

Guns..knives..Oh my goodness. Jordan thought. She turned the bag upside down and shook it to see if there might be anything else. Some spare clothes, a wad of cash.

And a wallet and identification.

Dominique Walters...  


She needed to figure this out. Quick. Jordan didn’t know much in that moment, but she knew she wasn’t going to go back to where she came from.

Jordan put everything back into the bag, and walked off with the I.D. Card. She would figure this out, and pose as Dominique Walters until she figured out who she was. She rushed out of the alleyway and then walked off into the distance as causally as possible.

Where she was going, she didn’t know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyways, some of this chapter takes place in 2014 The Winter Soldier movie. However, this is not what it’s gonna be like the whole book, I’m not really inserting my character into the movies, I just did the Winter Soldier bridge scene so that my character would have an encounter because that’s part of where this is going. Age of Ultron will happen, but Civil War, Infinity War and Endgame will not. I would say this story is MCU, not canon though, and with some facts and characters from the comics. Hope you are enjoying.😊


	8. My Life Now

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jordan’s mind is really messed up. So just a little pre-information before you read this chapter; She’s still going by the name she found in the wallet; Dominique Walters. It was intended to be her fake name for the mission she was going on in 2014, but obviously that didn’t work out, and now she thinks that is her actual identity.

September 1st, 2016.

That whole fiasco with the Ultron robot certainly made it easier to steal food and clothing from stores. But Jordan could not continue to live like this. 

She was still finding her way around the world. As soon as she left that Washington. She migrated to Manhattan.

So the point is, she had been living under the fake identity of Dominique Walters, since she still couldn’t remember her real name. She was glad nobody figured out about the fact that she wasn’t who she said she was. She barely remembered her past missions in the Red Room, only the ones from the last year. And she remembered nothing of her life before the Red Room. She’d been living off stolen goods and odd jobs for a while, after her stash of money ran out back in 2014. First she was a waitress, then she worked at a Circle K, then she worked at an Olive Garden, that was one of her nicer jobs. They let her eat the leftovers, so that was a plus.

Anyway, that particular Olive Garden location had closed, so now she needed a new job. And she didn’t know what to do.

Back in 2014 after that fight she had with...the man? With a metal arm? Her brain had been turned to mush. Her memories had slowly been coming back, but it was the slowest process ever, and certain things would not come back. However, she knew that she for sure did not want to go back to those people, she wanted to get away, she felt as if she’d been wanting to get away for a long time, but she couldn’t remember why. She had to move around often, because she didn’t want those people to find her, she remembered that her mission was supposed to last a few months, so that had given her time to get away, since they wouldn’t start to get suspicious until a few months later. But that was back in 2014, it was 2016 now, so they had probably been looking all over for her, she was surprised they hadn’t found her yet. It made her uneasy, she should probably change her name again.

Right now She was sitting in her garbage apartment using her garbage computer. She was wrapped up in about 3 different blankets because the heating was busted, no surprise there. The cold didn’t really bother her that much, she didn’t know why. But why be uncomfortable when she could just have 3 blankets.

She opened a google web page to find out more about the robot, those things were so scary, but they had been defeated by the...the..The Avengers! Right. That’s what they were called. She saw them on the news all the time.

As She scrolled through the News article, she saw an advertisement on the side, usually she didn’t look at these things, but she saw the word employment, and she really needed a job, so she clicked.

It took her to another website...Stark Industries. Huh. She recognized it, but not because she had worked their before, but because she had heard about Tony Stark, since he was one of the famous Avengers. Jordan still didn’t remember any of her life before the Red Room, and whenever she thought about it, she would get saddled with an immensely painful headache that lasted for at least a day. When it came to remembering the Red Room, Jordan couldn’t remember anything. She only remembered 2013-onward. The Red Room had mentioned Tony Stark and the Avengers many times, but Jordan didn’t really remember much of that after her incident in 2014, that’s what she was calling it. She had asked someone about it last year, in 2015, this kid who introduced himself as Peter, worked at this sandwich shop in Queens, Jordan had been living there at the time, and when she inquired he looked at her like she was crazy, and proceeded to go on a rant about the company and it’s owner ‘Tony Stark’, and then he branched off into the Avengers while Jordan stood there awkwardly. She didn’t ask anybody about that again. When people asked her about herself she would refer back to her fake identity that was for the mission, or she would lie. When asked about her childhood she would lie, her parents: dead, siblings: none, extended family: not close. And so on.

It frustrated Jordan that she couldn’t remember anything before 2013, some things sounded familiar to her, and the big gap that was her memory made her uneasy. She wasn’t stupid, she knew that regular people remembered their childhoods, she knew that regular people had parents and friends and didn’t just seemingly appear into the word out of thin air with just a few wads of cash, some guns and a card that said a fake name. And she also knew that regular people didn’t get amnesia that lasted for 2 years. But for the life of her she couldn’t remember. 

She didn’t remember that she was a killer. In 2013 all of her missions consisted of gathering intel and spying on people, so she didn’t remember murdering anybody. She knew she had done some unsavoury and unpleasant things, but she cousins remember who instructed her to do them. Anything she remembered was random, and came out of the blue along with a bothersome headache to go with it. It was really a struggle to remember anything, so most days she didn’t try.

Anyway, here the article discussed programs that Stark Industries would be setting up for Ultron relief. To be honest, it was already a relief that the robot was gone, but she kept reading.

Something about an event open to the public, where Stark Industries was hiring more employees to help out in different areas. She immediately signed up online. During the past 2 years she had discovered that one of her strengths was math, and technology, her previous employers had often gotten her to work as a cashier, or fix things, so she’d give it a try.  
Dominique Walters  
Address: 150 East Street Manhattan  
Postal Code: ****** Email: Mailbox:

Now that it was done, the event was next week at Avengers Tower. She just had to wait until then.

September 8th, 2016.

Here she was...This week Jordan had miraculously remembered that her real name was Jordan...but that was it, not even a last name, nothing else came along with that memory, unless you count the annoying headache, and this time she fainted. But she still decided to refer to herself as Dominque in public, since she had been going by that name. She told security at the tower that her name was Dominque Walters, since she had registered under that name, and they found her in the online system. She walked into the tower. It was nice in here, certainly nicer than her apartment. Jordan felt underdressed in such a luxurious place. She took a seat in the back and waited for the presentation to begin.

About 10 minutes later a lady with light red hair came onto the stage, she introduced herself as CEO Pepper Potts, Jordan wondered if that was a joke..Pepper? She had never heard anyone with that name.

Soon Jordan realized that Pepper Potts was done her speech, and people were clapping, Jordan quickly joined in.

Then, he came out...Tony Stark.

He started his speech, and at one point the crowd had laughed at something he said. Jordan didn’t, she didn’t often laugh, she didn’t smile, it was weird, previous coworkers had told her that she needed a sense of humour, but she didn’t really understand what they meant. Jokes and innuendos often flew over her head, it gave her coworkers a good laugh whenever they said something she didn’t get, at one grocery store she worked at, they nicknamed her the stone lady..that flew over her head too. She found that sometimes people would laugh at things and she didn’t know why, it confused her when people laughed.

Soon, the speech was over, and everybody in the audience was handed a little booklet, instructions for what they needed to do to be employed at Stark Industries.  
Okay, Jordan could do that, she followed instructions well, that’s what all her previous employers liked about her, she did what they said without complaint. It felt like she had been following instructions forever, it was something familiar in all her confusion.

Jordan was lost in thought, so she didn’t realize the event was over.

“Hey! Hello? You in the back row, the presentation’s over, you can go home.” Oh dear, Tony Stark was speaking to her, Jordan felt a hint of embarrassment and slowly got up. By the time she had made it to the end of the row, Tony Stark had come over to where she was standing. Jordan mentally prepared herself for a conversation.

“What are you looking to do here?” He asked her kindly.   
It took Jordan a long time to answer, but she finally said.  
“I’m looking for a job, I saw an ad online so I decided to apply.” She said, and she tried to smile but it probably just looked like a grimace.   
“That’s great! What are you good at?” He asked her, Jordan figured he was just trying to be friendly, and she didn’t want to waste his time so she tried to give quick and concise answers.  
Jordan slowly lifted her head up to face him. “Um..math, and I can build and fix things...technology.” Great, that sounded professional, Jordan thought. But apparently Tony didn’t notice her stuttering, or chose to ignore it because he answered.  
“That’s great, maybe you’ll do well in our technician section.”  
Jordan nodded slowly, were they done, her people skills were lacking. She could thank the Red Room for that.

It was silent. And Jordan noticed that Tony was looking at her, with a confused look on his face, almost like he was trying to remember something, but he couldn’t quite get there. Jordan felt uneasy with the silence.

“Sorry, it’s just...you look like someone I’ve seen before.” He said by way of explanation.  
“Actually...can I show you something?” Jordan didn’t respond before he took out his phone and pulled up the internet on a blue holographic screen. Jordan was shocked at this type of technology but she didn’t show it.

Tony had been typing for a while, and then a very old looking picture appeared on the screen, it was in black and white, and there were about 5 people in it. You could tell the picture was old, but it was quite clear, it looked to be enhanced by the technology.

“This is a company picture, not a lot of people have seen it before, it’s from the 50s...that’s my father...” He pointed to a man in the middle of the picture.   
When Jordan showed no signs of recognition Tony continued.  
“Howard Stark...? He founded the company?...Stark Industries?” Tony was looking at her weirdly as if she should know, as if it was something everyone knew.  
Now he was looking at her as if he expected a response. Jordan didn’t know what to say, was she supposed to know company history? She tried to dig in her memory for a Howard Stark, but her head began to lightly pound again, so she stopped trying. By then Tony continued talking.

“And this is one of his employees...” He said, pointing at a woman standing next to the man he identified as Howard...Now he was looking at her and the picture back and forth. Jordan felt upset that she couldn’t off anything to this conversation. She guessed she was supposed to find this picture interesting, but it meant nothing. Jordan just looked at him.

“Her name was Jordan Andrews?...One of the first black people, and women to work at Stark Industries? She went missing in 1970? She was never found? My father said that he was close with her, he looked for her long after the investigation was closed. Never found her though. Guess he had bad luck with finding his missing friends...” Tony snorted miserably after his little tangent, then he seemed to realize and came back to the main topic. “There’s a whole page about her on the website in the section about company history.” He said. Then he continued.

“Sorry, I just thought you looked a lot like her..I mean, I’ve never seen such a resemblance...” He trailed off, still looking at Jordan, analyzing her, but probably realizing that Jordan didn’t understand him.

Jordan had heard that he was eccentric in passing, so in an effort to make him not feel bad Jordan looked at the picture, trying to make it seem as if she knew what was going on. She guessed that this woman looked a bit like her, maybe a little older. But as she looked longer she could see how Tony thought there was a resemblance. But the picture still didn’t mean anything to her. The only thing they shared was a first name, but Tony didn’t know that Jordan was Dominique’s real name, (as she was still going by Dominique Walters) and Jordan didn’t know that she was actually looking at herself.

“Sorry, I didn’t catch your name?” Tony said all of a sudden.  
“Dominique Walters, Mr. Stark.” Jordan responded, better to play it safe, besides she didn’t even know her real last name. She would just continue going by what she had been for the past 2 years.  
Tony nodded before he said, “please call me Tony, Mr. Stark was my father.”  
Jordan nodded, but said nothing.

Clearly she wasn’t the talkative type, so Tony decided to end this before he embarrassed himself further.  
“You’ll get an email in a few days, then you’ll come in for an interview with the head of the different departments, then you’ll know if you got the job, it could be a long process.” He said professionally. Jordan just nodded and stood their awkwardly, her head was still pounding.

“I’ll see you in the next few weeks,” he said.  
Jordan nodded. “Goodbye,” she said quietly.  
And she walked out the same way she came in.

Tony watched her walk out, he was still thinking about that picture, he had way more of them, some in storage boxes, and others could be found publicly online. He could not get Dominique out of his head though. The resemblance was uncanny, he didn’t know how she didn’t see it. Huh. Maybe they were distant relatives or something. Didn’t scientists say there were at least 7 other people in the world who look like you?

Tony remembered how his father would always talk about Jordan Andrews when the company came up, how she was a great employee, smart, reliable, and funny, how she could keep up with him, and the company was better just because she was there. Tony remembered how Howard looked for Jordan almost as much as he looked for Steve, he even had a separate team look for her, but they never found anything, not a trace. Howard never found either of his friends, that Tony knew.

Tony figured Howard was just sad that he lost another one of his friends. But Howard had never told Tony how he and Jordan had left their friendship, and it was one of his biggest regrets.

Tony continued thinking about Dominique as he headed back to the upper floors, it wasn’t everyday that you see this kind of resemblance, even though the woman in the picture looked a few years older than Dominique, it was still way too close to overlook. It was so close that Tony would think it was a reincarnation if he believed in that kind of stuff, but perhaps it was just a cool coincidence.

He was going to show Rhodey this, his oldest friend would get a kick out of it. Dominique’s picture would be in the system since she registered, they took pictures of all the people who registered once they came back for interviews, so he’d have a reference.

Meanwhile as Jordan made her way home she continued thinking about her encounter with the famous Iron Man. His voice sounded like it belonged to someone else, she’s heard it before, maybe on the street? A TV somewhere? She didn’t know, and it was making her head hurt.

There were so many things Jordan didn’t know, she didn’t know what was wrong with her, the lack of memory made her upset and confused. She had once tried going to the doctor’s office last year, nobody should have amnesia for this long..maybe she had a bigger, more serious, problem. So she scheduled an appointment at the office to see if they could help her situation. Once they called her name she followed the nurse to the room. And that’s when she saw the chair, it was as if all the blood had drained from her body, the overwhelming sense of fear, and...phantom pain?...that she got when the doctor asked her to sit on the chair was staggering, she practically ran out the office as fast as possible, ignoring the doctor’s calls and all the phone calls and emails she got weeks after. She never went back.

Anyway, Jordan switched gears and decided to look through the booklet, a series of mathematical questions and instructions on technical equipment. Okay. This seemed...doable.

Jordan was good at math, she often helped the little girl that lives next door to her apartment with her math work, it looked like it was just the girl and her dad, and she said he was always going to work, so Jordan offered to watch her, and the man generously paid her in return. Jordan was happy to take care of the girl, Adrienne was her name, and she was 12. She was fun, bubbly, snarky, and quick-witted, she reminded Jordan of someone, but she didn’t know who, she just had a familiar personality, and it brought Jordan happiness.

Jordan finally made it back to her apartment, and went to the website that the booklet directed her too, another private Stark Industries website, she had already figured out her answers on the walk back home, so she just entered them into the place, and pressed submit. That was the last step, huh, simple. Now she just had to wait for her interviews. 

After her interviews she would hear if she got the job in a few business days.

It had been about 2 weeks since Jordan submitted her application and answers for the Stark Industries job. She had done her interviews, she thinks that they went okay, she often made up answers about her life, and vaguely answered questions about previous employment and expertise. Right now She was in her bed, a cot really. Just looking at her email...maybe it wasn’t as simple as she thought, maybe she needed to start looking at other job offers. The rent would be due soon.

She waited a few more hours, just laying there, staring at the ceiling, when she heard the ding that signalled and email on her laptop. She looked and...a new discount at Pizza Hut...of course. 

But then a few minutes later, she heard another ding..from Stark Industries!

She quickly clicked on the email and found that she’d been accepted...As a starting technician! Jordan was relieved, maybe now she’d be able to pay her rent and still have money for something other than Pizza Hut for dinner. The job would start the next week. Jordan could do this, now that she’d have a steady job she could focus on her memories and not worry about where her next meal was going to come from. All she had to do was follow instructions.

The Next Week, Monday.

Okay, today was Jordan’s first day of work at the tower, she was nervous. She woke up, brushed her long thick, curly hair, and got dressed in the nicest clothing she had, so a dress shirt and jeans. She quickly walked toward the tower.

She again showed her fake I.D. And was let in. She walked to the front desk and told them her name, and she was told where the technician floor was. Wow, okay. 

Hopefully she wouldn’t mess this up.


	9. Revelations: Part 1

September 16th 2017,

Jordan had officially been working as a technician at Stark Industries for a year, and she had moved a little higher in terms of position. She had a steady income and she was able to move out of her dump that she called her apartment.

She had just gotten her 1 year recognition badge. It felt familiar, like this was something she’d done before.

Her job also get really familiar, as if she’d done this kind of work in another life. It was really easy for her to get in the groove of things. At least that’s what Tony had said.

In the time between when she got hired and now, she had become good friends with the owner Tony Stark. Although She hadn’t met any of the Avengers yet, or the X-men, Tony always had funny stories to tell about them, or tales of exotic battles. Jordan found them interesting.

Tony had noticed that Jordan never laughed, so he made it his mission to try and make her laugh, or pull a smile out of her.

Working at Stark Industries had helped Jordan to remember a few things about her life. Although she hadn’t remembered anything about her life before she was kidnapped, she was starting to remember little details about her time in the Red Room. And she did not like what she was remembering. She mostly remembered their torture tactics, not missions. But that would come soon.

She didn’t remember anything much about that day in 2014 either, she had totally forgot that she fought the Winter Soldier, up until a few weeks ago she just referred to him as the guy with a metal arm. That was until Tony started telling her about the Avengers, and how ‘Bucky Barnes’ was a new member, and the previous Winter Soldier. This was apparently now public knowledge. Once Tony told her about Bucky, it refreshed her memory with a splitting headache, she tried not to show the pain on her face as Tony continued taking. 

After their conversation, Jordan finally recognized that it was Bucky that she fought on the car, The Winter Soldier. However she couldn’t remember why she fought him, or what led up to the fight, she could barely remember that day after all. Jordan figured it was best to keep this particular info to herself.

Tony said something about how he chose to do community service during his free time to make up for his crimes, even though most people understood that he was brainwashed. Tony just said it made him feel better.

When it came to talking about people like Captain America and the Black Widow, Jordan totally blue-screened. She had no memory of Captain America or Steve Rogers, and she didn’t remember ever training Natasha Romanoff. 

Jordan wasn’t totally uninformed though, once she moved into her new apartment she made it a priority to get a new TV and computer, so after these talks with Tony she would always do her research.

One day she was working in her corner of the technician’s lab, and Tony came walking into the lab with his friend, Colonel Rhodes. Jordan had never met him in person, but she’d heard many stories about him from Tony that she at this point she thought she might know a little to much about him.

“I’m telling you Rhodes, she looks just like her..I’ve never seen anything like it..I don’t know how I’ve waited this long to show you. I’ve been meaning for you two to meet, I’ve told her stories.” Tony was talking a mile a minute as he walked towards Jordan. She figured she knew what this was about, since she got the job at Stark Industries Tony still brought up the resemblance between Jordan and Jordan Andrews every one in a while.

“Yeah, yeah..this better not be another one of your crazy talks, we both know your mind runs too fast, even for you. And by the way...which stories?” Colonel Rhodes responded uneasily. Then they finally reached Jordan.

“Dominique! How’s my favourite employee!” Tony greeted exuberantly.  
“You say everybody’s your favourite employee, Tony, but I’m good, how are you?” Jordan responded politely. 

“Great, great...I want you to finally meet Rhodey.” He said with a flourish as he gestured to the man standing slightly behind him.

“Morning, Colonel Rhodes,” Jordan said politely.  
“Call me Rhodes, everyone else does...wow, Tony, not that you need to hear it more but you were right. She looks exactly like that woman in the picture.” Rhodey said, almost as if he didn’t believe it. Jordan just stood there with a half smile on her face.

“Exactly, told you.” Tony said, no longer invested as he tapped away at his Starkphone.

Jordan stood their awkwardly as Rhodey smiled politely. Jordan couldn’t really hold conversations with people unless she was talking about a specific work related topic, otherwise it was up to the other party to carry the conversation. It was easy talking with Tony because he always had a lot of cool stories to tell, and Jordan was interested in hearing them, and he made Jordan feel comfortable about voicing her opinions, however rare that was. Jordan got the sense that she hadn’t often gotten to voice her thoughts previously, so it was refreshing.

After that meeting, Jordan continued on with her day, and her life, it was a simple, and oddly familiar routine.

September 30th, 2018

Two years...Jordan had been working at Stark Industries for two years. Now she worked with Tony directly, and her memory was still giving her problems, but a few more life details were coming back, slowly but surely.

Now she just thought that she was a bad person. She would have dreams of brutally killing people in her sleep. At first she didn’t know what was going on, I mean, she couldn’t actually be a killer or anything like that? Right? But the dreams were so detailed, Jordan had never had dreams like that before, and she refused to entertain the idea that they were memories. There must just be something wrong with her. 

She had taken to searching for answers on the World Wide Web as Tony called it, to find out why her dreams were so eerily specific and violent. Well according to the internet these violent dreams were either a result of unsolved family problems in her life, or an unresolved conflict with somebody. Well first off, Jordan didn’t have family, and she didn’t have a problem with anyone. Maybe someone had a problem with her?

Anyway, the point is now she couldn’t sleep, well, she could, but she’d always wake up tired. And the dreams made her not want to sleep in the first place.

She decided late one night to go to the pharmacy and see if she could get some over-the-counter sleeping pills.

That’s where the problem was.

They didn’t help at all.  
Like at all.

This had to be some kind of joke. This was the leading brand! 

Jordan took two pills religiously each night.  
And nothing.  
Not even an eye twitch.  
It would not make her fall asleep.

Sometimes Jordan thought about taking 3 or 4 of the pills, but the pharmacist had been very serious when he said that adults should only take 2 of these pills. 

Now the last thing Jordan wanted to do was fall asleep and not wake up. All she wanted was a standard 8 hours without having a dream about gouging someone’s eye out. That was a recurring one.

What Jordan didn’t know was that even if she were to take the whole bottle it would hardly make a difference.

She still didn’t remember that she was an enhanced super soldier. 

Over the years Jordan took absolutely no notice of this, nobody else knew any different as she’d never taken a blood test. 

She did however notice that she was often hungry, so she had just taken to eating bigger portions of food. She found out the hard way that she needed a certain amount of food at a time to stay healthy. She didn’t feel like repeating the incident at work where she fainted in the technician lab. It was embarrassing and Tony insisted she take a week off.

Jordan didn’t know she had super strength either because she had never tried to lift anything that the average person wouldn’t lift. Whoever she had to move something that looked heavy she assumed she would need help, so she asked for it.

What had really shocked her was when she stepped out of the shower in the morning and noticed her muscular physique. She didn’t really have an excuse for that. Her body did not match up with the amount of food she ate at all. It made her uneasy, so she always wore long sleeves and jeans. And chocked it up to her having good genes. Although that was a shaky theory at best.

She hadn’t told anyone about the dreams. I mean, it wasn’t like she had many people to tell. And she had long ago decided she wasn’t going to the doctor, not after the chair incident.

Tony was her only friend, and she didn’t really feel like telling her boss that she couldn’t sleep because her dreams consisted of her violently killing people. She figured it wasn’t the kind of topic she should bring into the workplace. So she kept it to herself.

But it was beginning to affect her work, sometimes she would space out when Tony or her coworkers were talking to her, most of the time they brushed it off as her just being weird. But sometimes she caught Tony looking at her with a weird/concerned look on his face.

She needed to get this under control.

A few days later, Tony decided to introduce Jordan to his ‘intern’, Peter Parker. It wasn’t until Jordan saw Peter that she realized it was the same Peter she met just a few years ago, and wasn’t that a reunion.

“HEY!” Peter said loudly. Jordan flinched but smiled back.  
“Hi Peter.” She said, although much quieter, as he came to hug her. Jordan awkwardly hugged back.  
“Oh...you two know each other?” Tony said, a bit confused.  
“Yeah, I met him 3 years ago.” Jordan told Tony.  
“Yeah, she didn’t know who you were, so I had to tell her about you and the company.” Peter said happily.  
“Is that so?” Tony replied, “you didn’t know who I was?” Tony said with a raised eyebrow.  
“Um..not at the time no,” Jordan replied with a blush. Sometimes Tony made her so flustered, she didn’t know why, but it was weird.  
“And besides, Peter didn’t just tell me about you, he went on a 15 minute rant about you, he was clearly a fan” Jordan said.  
“DOMINIQUE!” Peter shrieked in a voice he would later say was absolutely manly. Jordan and Tony just laughed.

Even after all this time Jordan still had not told anyone that Dominique wasn’t her real name. The lie had just gone in for so long, that she just kept it that way, and besides, she still couldn’t remember her last name. And didn’t that frustrate her..after all this time, and out of all things, she couldn’t remember her damn last name?!

Jordan had started to get closer to Tony and the Avengers when she proved to be very talented in the technician’s lab, soon after she submitted some new ideas for the new Stark Phone, Tony had invited her to work in his personal lab in the upper floors. It was actually a wonder that she hadn’t run into any of the other Avengers before. She had met Reed Richards and Bruce Banner before though, in fact now that she worked on the upper floors she would run into them multiple times a week. The Fantastic 4 had their own building, but they came around a lot. It was funny and interesting to see Reed and Tony joke and competitively banter about who could do what and who was smarter. While Jordan and Bruce would just shrug and sit off to the side, often betting on who would solve a complicated equation or problem first. 

Jordan enjoyed the days when it was her, Bruce, Reed and Tony in the labs, they were the smartest people Jordan had ever met. She often didn’t understand the depth of the things they talked about, but she was just glad to be there, the conversations were always interesting. Although she and Bruce did often have to play the mediator during another one of Tony and Reed’s...how should she put it...disagreements.

Jordan’s memory was still a foggy thing, though, and she wrestled with it privately. Was she really not remembering anything? Or was she actively trying to ensure certain things stayed forgotten? 

Jordan subconsciously knew that this whole name thing would probably blow up in her face. Since she had already met Bruce and Reed, she knew it would only be a matter of time before she met the other Avengers.

She just never expected that it would happen so soon after.

December 25th, 2018.

It was a wonderful snowy day, and Jordan was on her way to the tower for the huge Christmas party that Tony was throwing for the 3 superhero groups. Tony had invited...well, actually insisted that Jordan come so that she could meet the Avengers and not be a loner anymore. (His words...not hers.) At first Jordan had tried to tell him that she was no superhero, and that she really didn’t do well in big groups of people...or with people in general, but he was not having it, she was a close friend, he insisted, and she was obligated to come. Jordan laughed nervously while Tony just smirked.

Jordan really didn’t know if she should go to this party. She had had a particularly bad, scary and violent dream the night before, to which she woke up screaming, so she was so tired, she had even fallen asleep at breakfast. So now she was late.

To be honest, Tony liked Jordan...well, he liked Dominique, cause he still had no idea that it wasn’t even her real name. But he probably liked her more than he should, but he couldn’t help it, she was one of the best people he knew, and he was glad they were friends, so he made sure she would be at the party. 

Jordan had just made it to the tower, and she was on her way through the lobby towards the private elevator that she used to get the the upper floors. When somebody called out to her.

“Hey! Hold that please!” The man said. He was dressed a bit weird, and Jordan didn’t know why he was asking her to hold the private elevator..she had never seen him before, maybe he was a close friend attending the party?

Jordan held down the open button on the elevator and waited for the man to step inside. It would be a long ride up, since the common floor was the top floor second only to the penthouse.

“Hi, my name’s Max.” The man introduced himself.  
“Hi there..Um, I’m Dominique (liessss)...which floor?”  
“The common floor please, 119.” The common floor was indeed 119 as there was 120 floors. So Jordan pressed 119. The elevator moved up.

“How do you know Tony?” Jordan asked.  
“Oh, well, I’m an old friend of the X-men.” Max responded. Jordan nodded and they were silent for the rest of the way up. She didn’t think too much of the man with her in the elevator, since she didn’t know all of Tony’s friends, in fact, she barely knew any of them.

When they got up to the common floor, which was decorated beautifully, it was really loud, there was so many people there that she didn’t know personally, although she’d seen a lot of them on the news. Her head was beginning to hurt from the noise, so she looked around for Tony, so she could let him know that she was here.

Suddenly Jordan heard lots of commotion behind her. She looked up, and was shocked to see everyone was staring at her...or rather behind her.

This was not how her introduction was supposed to go, so Jordan started to say something, in hopes that she could quickly divert their attention from her. “Um...hi...does anyone know where Tony is?” She said quietly. Nobody responded, so now Jordan was confused, was it her Christmas sweater..was it ugly? Count on her to make a sucky first impression. At this point everyone was still looking behind her. So she slowly turned around..this felt like a horror movie and it wasn’t even Halloween.

“Why hello there X-men.” Max said. “Nice to finally see you again.” He said in an evil sounding voice. Just Jordan’s luck that she let a villain into a secure facility.

“Um...Max? What’re you doing?” Jordan asked timidly. And that’s when Max started to raise his hands...and levitate. 

“Dominique!” Tony suddenly appeared and yelled urgently. “Get out the way!” He screamed. Jordan wasn’t one to wait so she dropped her bag and dived out of the way just as a table came flying past her.

But unfortunately it was too late by then. All of a sudden Jordan was lifted up by a force...and flung into the far wall at the end of the hall, head first. The world went white. Jordan head flared up with pain, she hadn’t felt this kind of pain in 4 years, it was agonizing and confusing. And soon after she immediately fell unconscious.

Hours Later.

Jordan had been unconscious, or asleep as Bruce and Dr. Helen Cho put it, for a few hours. Anybody else would have woken up earlier, but the doctors ran a light scan of Jordan and the scans showed signs of severe head trauma, something that couldn’t have been cause just by hitting a wall. Also something that should’ve been taken care of years ago. 

Bruce and Helen couldn’t say when she’d wake up, but according to the monitors, there was tons of brain activity, so Jordan wasn’t brain dead or anything. Tony was relieved, but still a mess.

He blamed himself (as he often did) for letting Jordan get hurt. After the X-Men and Avengers apprehended Magneto, he pulled Jordan onto the couch in the living room, Bruce assured him that they wouldn’t need to go down to medical. Then He had asked Friday what happened, and Friday told him that Magneto had tampered with his facial recognition systems before coming into the elevator. 

Tony had been sitting beside Jordan for the past hour. That’s when she started to stir, then let out a moan of pain.

“Dominique?” Tony said hopefully, as he brushed her hair back from her face.

“Why do you keep calling me that.” Jordan asked. “My name is Jordan, you’d think you would remember your employee...I’ve been here for 5 years.” Dominique...Jordan? Responded.

Now everybody was starting to get confused...what was she talking about. Tony had said he invited his employee, and he said her name was Dominique. Before they could ask questions, Jordan started saying more. “My head hurts...who the hell was that guy.” “You just got a first class treatment from Magneto...the X-men’s sometimes friend...sometimes enemy...sometimes villain...sometimes sort-of hero...I guess today he was the villain, you know the drill.” Tony said flippantly, but they could tell he was still kind of worried. “Oh...sorry I let him in, he said his name was Max.” Jordan apologized as she slowly started to sit up. “Did anybody else get hurt?” She asked quickly. “No, we’re all good,” Tony assured her. 

After Tony was sure that Dominique wasn’t going to collapse or anything, he wanted to find out what she meant before when she said Dominique wasn’t her real name.

“Um...Dominique...you said that wasn’t your name?” Tony wasn’t sure how to phrase his question, after all, he’d been calling her Dominique for the past 2 years. 

“It’s not...it’s Jordan.” Jordan responded, as if they should all know.

Tony looked at everybody behind him. Steve looked uncomfortable, Bucky’s face was blank, and Natasha looked like she was analyzing Dominique. Everyone else just had a constant look of confusion etched on their faces. 

That’s when Bucky spoke out.

“That’s her.” He said, as if he’d come across a revelation. He moved toward the front of the room, Natasha following right behind him.

“Buck what do you mean?” Steve decided to make his presence known.

Jordan’s head was still a little foggy, but she knew she didn’t particularly like where this conversation was heading.

“I fought you.” Was all Bucky said.

“Youuuuu....fought her?” A man Jordan recognized as the Wolverine said. “You wanna elaborate?” He continued.

“In 2014...when I was still under Hydra’s control...in Washington, when I had the run-in with Steve, Natasha and Sam.” That was Bucky’s elaboration.

“You were that woman on the car...you’ve been here all along?! How come I didn’t figure out you were here?!” Natasha exclaimed, half surprised half frustrated.

“Those super spy skills must be slipping red.” Tony joked. While Rhodey gave him a “seriously” look. Tony just shrugged, that was how he coped with things he didn’t understand.

Up until now Jordan hadn’t said anything. She was so tired that she just let her real name slip, she knew she never should’ve come to this party. Oh well, the cat was way out of the bag now, she’d have to tell the truth.

“Yeah...I remember.” She said, not really making eye contact with anybody.

“Jordan..We don’t understand, what are you saying.” Tony said after he recovered from shock.

“I fought him back a few years ago...because...I don’t remember why I did...he hit me, and I didn’t remember why I was there after.” Jordan knew her explanation sounded weak.

Everybody was still looking kind of confused. Then Natasha spoke.

“I’ve been trying to remember who you were for years. But I could barely remember your face...after I went back to look for you at the car, you were long gone.” Natasha said.

Natasha was silent for a long time...she knew something was different about this woman...it was right there...right there...then she spoke again.

“You remind me of my trainer from the Red Room.” Natasha said suddenly.

Everyone was silent. Natasha hardly ever said anything about the Red Room.

“No...you are her...you are the trainer.” Natasha said eerily.

“I...I don’t remember.” Jordan was upset. “I can’t...can’t remember anything.”

“Oh God...” Jordan put a hand over her mouth. She immediately remembered what she’d said.

“My name isn’t Dominique Walters.” She said.

“Yeah we figured..” Tony said shakily. 

Jordan looked up at him...everybody was looking back at her...some confused, some scared.

“I...I should probably go.” Jordan said to the room at large...then she grabbed her bag and went to leave.

.


	10. Revelations: Part 2

The whole room went into chaos. Everyone was shouting and screaming, Tony looked like he wanted to faint, Steve looked like someone had broken his shield in half, and Jordan’s head was quickly starting to hurt again.

“Okay guys!” Natasha called out, “Calm down!”  
“Calm down?!” Tony and Steve said together, “we’re in shock!”

Natasha rolled her eyes and then looked to Jordan, “This...Arno guy, is he still alive?” Jordan had to think about that.

“He was born 1955, so he’d be 63 this year, I hope he still is, he was always sick.” Jordan responded.

“Maybe we can try and find him...” Bucky suggested. “You said he was in a private medical centre?” He continued.

“Yup..does anybody have my phone I’ll call.” Jordan said. “I remember the number...I remember everything.” She said slowly.

Scott handed Jordan her phone, and she dialled the number the medical centre she used to the medical centre she used to frequent. After 2 rings, there was an answer.

“Hi..um...I’m looking for one of the residents that used to stay at this medical centre..um, Arno Casey?” Jordan said after a thought.

After a few minutes, the lady gave her an address for a house in Manhattan, after another few minutes, Jordan hung up.

“So he’s still alive.” Jordan said plainly. “So that’s good.” She tried to smile but failed. “He probably won’t recognize me.” 

Everybody looked around at that...”wait a minute” Tony suddenly spoke. “How old are you?!” He said, as if he just remembered.

“103...technically.” Jordan responded slowly. She hesitantly looked up at everybody. They seems shocked and confused.  
Jordan should probably start from the beginning.

“Okay, I’m sorry I have to drop all of this on you right now, but I’ll just start from the beginning.” Jordan said aloud. Everyone else nodded for her to continue.

“Ok so..my name is Jordan Andrews and I was born in 1915...um, I was a technician at Stark Industries for years, and I met Arno in 1955 after he was born, I kept visiting him all the way until 1970, and that’s when I was kidnapped.” Jordan said.

“How were you kidnapped? Who would want to kidnap you?” Natasha asked. Jordan was about to answer but then Tony spoke.

“Wait...1970?..I was born that year, and if Howard was infertile, how did I get here?” Tony asked confused.

Jordan hesitated, she remembered that Howard had never explicitly told her the circumstances of Tony’s birth.

She looked toward the ground as she spoke. “Tony..um, I don’t really know the circumstances of your birth..the day I was kidnapped was the day I met you...Howard had brought you to the Stark Industries building to show you off, me and him had a...disagreement, or sorts in his office. I decided to go to the cafe down the road to sort out my thoughts because I was in shock that Howard had you, and on my way there I was kidnapped.” Jordan said with a quiet voice.

“So..who-I mean..what?” Tony stuttered.

“I- before I left the office I saw a file with the name HYDRA on the front..” Jordan said softly.

The room was chaos once again.

“So then who-“ Tony couldn’t finish, Jordan decided to put him out of his misery.

“I don’t know..Arno became sick because Howard used Steve’s DNA, because the vials were so old, the serum backfired when Arno was born.” Jordan said at first, she looked at everybody and they seemed to understand..so she continued.

“Howard wanted a perfect child..he wouldn’t make the same mistake again...so he would’ve tried something else to try and make the perfect child..and that something else might’ve involved HYDRA.” Jordan continued.

“I didn’t want to think that Howard would associate with them..and I didn’t get the chance to ever think about it again because I was kidnapped after..but...it might have something to do with Bucky...” Jordan said while avoiding eye contact.

The room was once again filled with silence.

“It might be in your best interest to do a blood test...I’m sorry.” Jordan said as she looked at the ceiling. “I’m sorry I’m telling you this way.”

Bucky’s face was blank, he kept looking at Tony, and then quickly looking back at the ground when Tony noticed him looking.

“I have the address...if you guys want to find Arno..or you might need a moment..I’m so sorry.” Jordan finished.  
She stood up and made to leave the room but not before writing the address down on some paper beside her bed. She needed to get out of there..they probably hated her, she just came here and turned their lives upside down.

“Hey Jordan wait!” Logan called, “don’t go, please, this ain’t your fault.” He said.  
Jordan stood there looking around, she breathed slowly through her nose trying to avoid a panic attack. She didn’t want to be here. She wanted to go home. She slowly shifted from foot to foot. 

“Okay..let’s move to the common room, you can tell us about the kidnapping.” Natasha said, leading the way. Jordan followed slowly, hanging at the back of the group.

Once everyone was settled, Jordan continued her story. “Um..so I uh..I was walking down the street after seeing Tony..and I was going to go to the cafe down the street, to get there faster there is this alleyway, so I decided to cut through it.” Jordan said quietly.

“I’m guessing that was a mistake.” Sam said slowly. Jordan let out a hollow laugh. “Yeah.” Is all she said.

“So uh...there was this guy on the ground calling for help...I probably should’ve known it was a trap, I went to help him and they knocked me out.” Jordan said.

“Where’s they take you?” Natasha asked warily.

Jordan paused...then, “Russia...The Red Room.” Jordan said slowly.

The room was silent once again. Jordan continued on with the story. She told them everything about her time in the Red Room.

“They experimented on me...apparently I was the only one who survived the experiments and didn’t go crazy right after.” She said. “It was their own version of the super soldier serum.” She said hesitantly, she didn’t know how they would take it.

“Well that explains why you look like that,” Rhodey said, it was the first thing he had said..he was in shock the whole time.

“Yup.” Jordan said with a grimace.

Natasha again looked thoughtful. The she spoke.

“Oh my God..that was you...you trained me.” She said slowly. Everybody once again looked to Jordan for confirmation. Jordan met Natasha’s eyes, and nodded once.

“Yes, you and your friend.” Jordan said. “I’m sorry I broke your arm...and your leg.” She continued.

“Wait..you broke her arm?” Bucky said loudly. “And her leg?” Tony finished.

Jordan shrugged and nodded, she didn’t know what else to say.

“It was for the Black Widow Ops test, we had to last at least 30 minutes in a fight against Jordan to make it into the program.” Natasha said.

“You were really good,” Jordan said, “she was the only one that made it.” Jordan said.

Everyone nodded.

Jordan was hunched in on herself, she didn’t know whether to continue or not. 

“So yeah..I was under the control of the Red Room until 2014.” Jordan said slowly.

“Wow..” Scott said with wide eyes, “That’s 44 years.” He said, surprised.

Jordan scrunched her eyes tightly and nodded, it was a depressing topic.  
“Right.” She said, her voice cracking. Tony put his hand on her shoulder in comfort, even though he was still shocked.

“Um..yeahhhh so, I was on an assignment to kill someone in Washington on August 8th, 2014.” Jordan said.

“Oh, I think I know where this is going.” Natasha said, everyone looked confused except for her, Steve and Bucky.  
Jordan looked at them.

“So I was on the bridge, and that’s when I noticed the armoured car Bucky came in, so I went to get off the bridge. Once I was off, I got out of the car because Bucky was shooting at Steve and Natasha, so I shot at him.” 

Bucky shifted in his seat, he seemed to be remembering it.

“I had orders, if I wasn’t successful in my missions then I wouldn’t be given dinner, I really needed to get across the street, so I tried to run when Bucky jumped off the bridge. I also killed all the soldiers that he had with him as backup.” Jordan said while looking out the window instead of everybody else.

“He was already on the ground by the time I was halfway across the street so I had to fight him.” Jordan continued the story.

Bucky looked at her, so did Steve. “I remember you...I didn’t know it was you at the time, but I used to hear stories about you when they took me off ice,” bucky said quietly.

Jordan looked back at him. “Yeah..I was trying to stop you so I could get across the street, or at least slow you down..but I’m sure you know what happened,” she said with a little laugh. 

“I hit you, you were unconscious.” Bucky finished.

“Yeah..at first I tried to fake it, but then I actually lost consciousness for a long time, my head is very sensitive, as I’m sure you’ve noticed.” Jordan continued.

“So what happened, how come you didn’t return to the Red Room.” Tony asked.

Jordan quickly looked at Bucky before looking away, “when I woke up I didn’t remember anything, I didn’t know who I was, I didn’t remember my life.” Jordan said, her voice starting to wobble.

“I’m sorry.” Bucky said looking at the ground.

“No, it’s fine, it wasn’t your fault, if you didn’t do that..then I..I would um...I’d still be in the Red Room.” Jordan said, her voice cracking. 

“Hey, it’s okay,” Tony said, hugging Jordan, “you’re here now.” He said, doing his best to comfort her.  
Jordan hugged him back, but not before blushing again. Wanda looked at her knowingly with a smirk. Jordan quickly looked away in embarrassment and buried her head in Tony’s shoulder.

Jordan nodded and continued, “so after I woke up, I found the fake identity I was supposed to have for the mission, and I thought that was who I was, and that’s how I’ve been spending the last 4 years, as Dominique Walters.” Jordan said.

“So you’re an assassin?” Peter asked.  
“Yes,”  
“And a super soldier?!” He continued.  
“Yeah,” Jordan responded.  
“Woahhh, can you soar with me?” He asked  
“Um, I..okay.” Jordan said confused. Peter pinched his fist in the air, and everybody started talking at once about sparring and missions.

Jordan got up to get some water. “Hey Jarvis?” Bruce said, “run a DNA scan on Tony and Bucky please?” Bruce continued. Bucky and Tony jumped up at this, quickly looked at each other and then looked away. Everyone else snickered.

After Jordan gulped down the water, she noticed Steve had followed her into the kitchen. He was fighting with his fingers and shirt, then he spoke.

“I um..I always wanted a son,” he said softly.

“Well, Arno always wanted a father, too bad he never got that, but, better late then never right?” Jordan tried to make Steve feel better. “We can go to his house today, hopefully he’s up for a visit, I think he’ll be pleasantly surprised.” Jordan finished.

“I’m nervous,” Steve said quietly, as everyone was still talking in the common area.

“Don’t be, Arno is amazing, you’ll love him, and he’ll love you.” Jordan said with a small smile.

“Alright, thank you, Jordan.” Steve said.

Jordan smiled as they headed back to the living room to get ready to go to Arno.


	11. Meeting You Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, my writing has been really sporadic these last few days, I’m pretty sure I wrote 3 chapters in one day, and I wrote two today🥲Updates will probably be sort of consistent. I get new ideas as I go, but now that I have everybody’s story straight, it’s good. Things will keep coming to me as I go, and that’s how I’ve been writing this, I had an idea, and I just think of it as I go lol. Hope you guys are enjoying so far.😊

After Steve and Jordan talked, they went back to the family room to meet up with everyone else and make their way to Arno’s address. The X-men and Fantastic Four offered to let the Avengers go by themselves, to avoid overwhelming Arno. So they left.

The drive took about an hour. Jordan was nervous the whole time, she knew Arno probably wouldn’t recognize her...what if he didn’t believe her? What if he kicked them out? Or called the police? Then she remembered they were the Avengers so he probably wouldn’t call the police, he’d at least hear them out. Hopefully.

They approached the door...Jordan stood there with her hand raised to hit the doorbell...she stood there, and stood there, and stood there.

“So...you gonna ring it or..” Sam said after 5 minutes.  
“Right.” Jordan snapped out of it and hit the doorbell.

“You go in first...the rest of us will wait out here until you tell him everything.” Steve suggested. Jordan nodded, and then the door opened and she walked inside.

She turned to see who opened the door and that’s when...

“Joanne?” A familiar voice called out. Jordan turned to look to the where the voice was coming from. “Um...oh God...Nina?!” It was Nina, her roommate and friend that she had met on that missions in Britain years ago. Nina looked older obviously, she had been 22 when Jordan had met her in 1991, so now she’d be 49 years old. 

“Okay, you need to explain, like right now.” Nina said with a shocked face, “what fountain of youth have you been drinking from, seriously, and where can I get some.”

“I will okay-I.” And that’s when an older man walked out.

“Arno?” Jordan called out softly.

“Jordan?! Is that you?!” Arno was shocked, the way Jordan looked now, was very different from how she looked when he knew her, the last time he saw her he was 15 in 1970, and she was 55 years old. 

“Yes, Arno..it’s me.” Jordan responded softly. But now Nina looked confused. “Arno, her name is Joanne.” Nina said with a nervous laugh as she looked back and forth between Arno and Jordan.

“It’s Jordan actually, Um, it’s a long story. Jordan Andrews...not Joanne Simmons. I’m sorry Nina.” Jordan looked at the ground. “There’s a lot I need to tell you both.

The three of them sat down in the living room, and Jordan told them her story all over again, with extra details for Nina. She told them both about the Red Room, she owed it to Arno and she knew that she could trust Nina.

“And that’s how I got kidnapped..” she told Arno. “And Joanne Simmons was an undercover name, Nina. I never came to Britain to study.” They both looked shocked.

“So that’s why you look so young..and why you left so abruptly.” Nina concluded.

“Yes...and I’m not here alone, I’m sure you both know the Avengers, and Tony Stark?” Jordan asked, and they both nodded quickly.

“Well, Arno..I know you’d always wondered why I came to visit...and I always avoided the subject..and I know you wanted to find out about your parents, and I-uh.” Jordan stuttered out, then Arno grabbed her hand...”it’s okay Jordan, take your time.” He said. Jordan nodded and continued.

“You’ve heard of Howard and Maria Stark? Tony Stark’s parents?” They both nodded. “Your name wasn’t Arno Casey, it was Arno Stark....Howard was your father.” Jordan said timidly. “I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you...the day I was kidnapped I was coming to tell you, but you know what happened.” Jordan said looking away.

Arno was taking deep breaths, he was shocked to hear this, and it would only get more shocking form here.

“And that’s not all, I know I said Howard was your father but...he was infertile..he couldn’t have children...so he used someone else’s DNA...Steve Rogers’.” Jordan finished with her eyes closed..she knew the story sounded crazy. And when she opened her eyes, Arno looked like he didn’t believe her. 

“Steve Rogers? As in Captain America?!” He asked. “Wh-what?! How-I don’t.” He stuttered out.  
“I know, I know, I’m sorry.” That’s all Jordan could think to say. “I wanted to tell you I swear..please don’t be angry.” She pleased timidly.  
“No Jordan, I’m not angry with you, I’m just in shock.” Arno said. Then he said, “I’m happy you’re here, I’ve missed you, it’s good to finally know that you didn’t leave me on purpose...I always thought you did..I’m sorry you’ve suffered.” He told her, his eyes shining with tears. 

Jordan got up immediately to embrace Arno, as she did she thought of fond memories of her and an adorable little boy, in a small hospital room, going about there days and finding comfort in each other...before life ripped that away from them.  
Then she hugged Nina, the best friend that she’d ever had, in the midst of a period of sadness, Nina Bailey had shown her kindness, and life again, she felt happy with Nina. And she was even more happy to have two of her best friends back.  
“How do you two know each other?” Jordan asked, looking at Nina.  
“Well, after you left, I got my medical license to become a surgeon, I decided that I wanted to come do nursing here in the U.S., and I found myself in Manhattan, after a few more years of medical school, I got a job at New York Presbyterian, Arno was there for his monthly visit to the doctor, since he doesn’t have to be in around the clock care anymore, and that’s when I met him..we’ve been.... friends ever since.” Nina finished with a huge smile, Arno smiled back. Jordan looked between them and wondered why Nina paused before the word friends, clearly they liked each other, she would tackle that later.

“That’s great, I can’t believe I’m you’ve been here all along. I’m so happy you’ve gotten better as you got older Arno.” Jordan said happily.

“Oh, before I forget, I came here with everybody else.” Jordan said quickly.  
“Who’s everybody else?” Arno asked.  
“The Avengers..” Jordan responded with a small smile, “I’ll get them.” She then walked back to the door, and waved to the car, signalling for them to come in.

The Avengers walked in.. “okay guys, uh, this is Arno..and this is my friend Nina, I met her on a mission 27 years ago.” Jordan introduced everybody. 

“Hi..um-well uh...I’m um, right so uh.” Steve tried to stutter out a greeting. The rest of the Avengers snickered. Steve glared at them playfully and then shyly walked over to shake Arno and Nina’s hand. “So I’m uh...I-, well so I’m your uh..your..” Steve was still stuttering, and Natasha had clearly taken pity on him, so she walked over to Arno and Steve, to try and help Steve.

That’s when Jordan noticed Tony standing near the back, he was staring at Arno in awe, she walked over. “You okay?” She asked. “I know this is a lot.” Jordan tried to gauge what Tony was feeling.  
“Uh...yeah I’m good,” Tony said. Jordan didn’t think he was good. “It’s just..all my life I wanted a sibling, if I had known I’d had an older brother..I would’ve been so happy, I was always lonely.” Tony said, in a rare show of emotion. Jordan noticed his eyes were glistening.

“It’s okay,” Jordan grabbed his hand, “I told him about you, he always wanted a brother too, he’ll be happy you’re here, now come on,” Jordan pulled Tony over to Arno. The rest of the Avengers had gone to the backyard with Nina to give Steve, Arno, Tony and Jordan some privacy. 

“So Arno, meet your younger brother,” Jordan said.

Arno and Tony stared at each other for a brief moment, before Arno, grabbed Tony’s arm and pulled him in for a hug. Tony was shocked at first, before he let out a small sob as he hugged Arno tightly back. Jordan looked over at Steve, he had a few tears running down his face as he looked at the scene in front of him. Jordan decided to give the three of them some privacy. She headed to the backyard.

When she stepped down from the deck into the huge piece of land, she noticed Bucky sitting off to the side away from the group. She walked over.  
“Hey Bucky,” she greeted. “You okay?” She asked as she sat down next to him.  
“I...I don’t know, Jarvis told us before we left that you were right, the scan showed a 99% match for me and Tony.” He said in a gruff voice. “I just wasn’t expecting it..after I got my memories back...the last thing on my mind was a kid, I thought anybody related to me would’ve been dead, and then to find out I’ve been living with my own kid for 4 years..it’s a lot.” He said tiredly. “Me and Tony have been able to have a friendship, even though the whole Howard and Maria thing...he forgave me, he told me he understood and he told me it wander my fault. He helped me, in those years after I broke through the brainwashing.” Bucky continued, “it was easy before, and now...now I don’t know what to say to him.” I would’ve never thought something like this would be possible, let alone happen.” He said brokenly. “I know Steve thought about kids, but I never did...what if he doesn’t want me, not even as his father..but as his friend? I don’t want it to be awkward.” Bucky put his head in his hands. “And why would he ever want to be related to someone like me..I killed his own mother, Arno’s mother too.” Bucky finished, and that’s when Jordan noticed he was crying. He turned towards her, his face streaked with tears and full of sadness.

Jordan put her hand in Bucky’s shoulder. “It’ll be fine Bucky, it might be a little weird at first, what with all this new information, but it won’t be bad..Tony and Arno aren’t little kids, they’ve grown up, nothing between you and Tony has to change, unless you guys want it too.” Jordan told him. Bucky slowly nodded, wiping his face. A few minutes later Tony came over.

He sat down beside Bucky, “hey Buck..you been crying? Don’t tell me Sam made fun of your heat pictures again.” Tony joked, and it brought a laugh out of Bucky. He smiled, “nothing like that Tony,” he sniffled. “I just don’t want things to be awkward, since, you know..” bucky tired to articulate how he was feeling to Tony. Tony briefly looked at his lap before facing Bucky again, “I know Buck, I know..my opinion of you hasn’t changed, you’re still a great guy, and you’re one of my friends, things isn’t have to be weird.” Tony said, and Bucky smiled before giving Tony a side hug.

Jordan smiled, after that Bucky got up to go and properly meet Arno back inside, so it was just her and Tony.  
“Hey.” Jordan said, “Hey.” Tony said back as he scooted over it it he spot Bucky was previously in. “Thanks for introducing me to the him,” Tony told Jordan. “It was no problem..I guess you can thank Magneto for that.” Jordan said with dry humour.  
“Speaking of that, are you okay?” Tony asked her as he ran a gentle hand over the side of her head.  
Jordan blushed as she answered, “yes I’m good, it’s been a crazy few days though, again, I’m sorry you guys had to find out the way you did.” She told Tony.  
“It’s fine,” Tony said right away, “I’m glad I found out,” he continued.

Jordan smiled at Tony, he was still looking at her, and she felt her cheeks getting hot again. He was the only one who could get this much feeling and emotion out of her, it was confusing and embarrassing sometimes, how much she felt for him. Tony smiled back at her knowingly.

“I invited him and Nina to stay at the tower full time, we have a medical bag and everything, so he’ll have proper care, and Nina can work with Helen, or she can continue her job at Presbyterian, whatever she wants.” Tony said. “That’s so nice of you,” Jordan smiled, one of the things she love-*ahem*, liked, about Tony was his generosity. “Well, they’re family,” he said with a smile and shrug.

“Well okay, I guess we should get going back to the Tower,” Tony started, “I’ll send someone back for their things.” He helped Jordan up and they walked back in to the house. Steve, Arno and Bucky were still talking. Arno looked happy, which in turn made Jordan happy, Arno deserved a family after all these years, people who cared.

Jordan walked out with everybody else, she had made new friends, found her old ones, and gotten her memories back.

What could possibly go wrong?


	12. Unsettled While Settling In

After introductions were made, the Large group headed back to the tower for dinner. After all, Arno and Nina still had to meet the Fantastic Four and the X-men.

There had been so much going on, so much that Jordan had revealed in such little time, she hardly had any time to think about what this meant for her. She could remember now...she remembered everything, everything she had ever done under the control of the Red Room, everywhere she had been was left in chaos after she was done with her mission. She left behind shattered agencies, governments in chaos, dead bodies, and broken families in her wake. 

By now Jordan was lagging behind the group. Who’s to say she couldn’t just be controlled again? She thought about the life she had before the Red Room, she used to think she was strong, a person with a strong will, and opinions and...and morals. That all went out the window when they got her, she clearly wasn’t as strong-willed as she thought since they so easily got her to do their bidding. 

44 years...44 years of captivity. Jordan found that she couldn’t even fathom it, and she was the one who loves it. 

The brainwashing was still fading away, but Jordan remembered the gist of it, she was starting to appreciate her lack of memory more and more. Before the Red Room, Jordan wasn’t someone who killed, she wasn’t skilled in combat, she could barely throw a punch. This new person she’d been moulded into was a person she didn’t understand, but at the same time a person who she understood completely.

Everyone else was still talking and getting to know each other, so she got into the car behind everyone else, silently. Everyone else blissfully unaware of the current existential crisis she was having. 44 years of her life just gone, gone just like that, this must be how Bucky and Steve felt at first, or maybe they still feel that way, who knows. Jordan decided she should probably see a therapist, she parked that thought in the back of her mid for later.

As they were driving through the city, Jordan began to think about what life could’ve been like if she hadn’t been kidnapped. With a start, she thought about her parents, she remembers her last visit with them, it was pleasant, so she took comfort in that, at least she lefts things on a good and happy note. This is only a slight reprieve, because after that she remembers the fact that she was gone without a trace, who would’ve contacted them to tell them she had gone missing? Jordan didn’t want to continue down this train of thought, but she had no choice, she wonders what they did for the rest of their lives..their only child, gone...vanished without the slightest hint as to where she’d be. Jordan can only hope that they found happiness, and did not dwell on her disappearance and probably assumed passing. Jordan knows she’s reaching at this point, but it’s all she has. Her parents were all she had. 

It’s too late when Jordan realizes she’s silently crying in the back seat. She turns her head away from Vision, who is sitting beside her, today is supposed to be happy, she doesn’t want to ruin things by bringing up her dismal thoughts about the total disaster her life was for over 4 decades.  
She looks out the window as she silently cries, then she mentally snorts about how she probably looks like one of those characters in sad music videos Peter likes to show her.

Jordan thinks about how she didn’t have many friends...none who lasted anyway. She remembers Jennifer, her old coworker, they talked sometimes, and their talks were pleasant, Jennifer was a welcome friend in Jordan’s otherwise lonely life outside Stark Industries. When Jordan was kidnapped she left very few people behind to miss, she only remembers Howard, and...Arno.  
She quickly reminds herself that Arno is only one seat up..he’s right there, and he’s safe, and happy.

They’re still driving through the streets, Jordan has stopped crying by now, the only evidence he red eyes, puffy face, and some tear tracks. She abruptly realizes that she should probably be dead right now...she was born 1915..she should be 103. She lets out a loud gasp.

“Ms. Andrews, are you okay?” Vision asks, kindly. Jordan doesn’t answer for a long time, and then she realizes everyone’s looking at her, so she quickly says, “Yes Vision, I’m fine.” Hoping that’s enough to not cause suspicion or alarm. Jordan just wants to go home.

She notices they are passing the street where her apartment is on..Tony had long since offered Jordan à place to stay at the tower, he even gave her a whole room on the Avengers floor, seriously these floors were huge and filled with space, but she still kept her apartment, she’d probably sell it soon to move fully into the tower, but tonight she was glad she had kept it. She could already tell that she wouldn’t be good company tonight, all the happiness and revelations going on while she felt like she was falling down a dark whole.

She looked up to the front seat where Natasha was driving. “Hey Natasha can you let me out here please?” She asked.

“Wait, Jordan aren’t you coming back for dinner tonight?” Tony asked, and everybody else gave murmurs of agreement or confusion. Jordan should’ve known this would look suspicious.  
Well, the Red Room didn’t teach her to lie for nothing, time to see if she still had the skill.

“Um, yeah, but I still have my apartment, I’ll stay there for the night and join you guys in the morning, in fact! Maybe I’ll take you up on the offer to fully move in!” Jordan told everyone and out on her most convincing smile. Once everyone nodded their assent she tried to exit the car as quickly as possible without looking suspicious. She let out a breath when she got to the huge lobby of her building.

She looked back to see that the Avengers were still in the car outside, probably waiting till she got in the elevator before they left, Jordan sighed, they were so nice.

Back at the tower, Tony had gotten Arno and Nina settled in on the Avengers floor, and they were all gathering around the table for dinner, which Sam and Wanda had gone ahead to order in. The X-men and Fantastic Four had been alerted of their return, and they were on their way up to the Avengers floor to join dinner. After consulting Tony first, just to see if Arno and Nina were up for more introductions, they didn’t want to overwhelm them. 

It was great, Arno and Nina fit in great with everybody, everyone was chatting and laughing. And everyone noticed how happy Tony looked whenever he looked at Arno, they could see the awe and a kind of brotherly look of love and protectiveness in his eyes that one could only have for someone who is like a sibling to them. Tony looked as if he couldn’t believe this was happening, everyone knew how much Tony had been lonely growing up, they knew how much he wanted a sibling. Sometimes Tony mentioned things in passing and he thought nobody listened, but it only showed how much he had come to trust the inhabitants of his tower, that he shared these little facts about his life without apprehension or forethought.

It was a happy time, even though Tony, Steve, Bucky and Arno were still coming to terms with the new knowledge of their relations to each other.

Steve had this constant confused smile on his face, as if he didn’t know if Arno was truly real or not, and Bucky sort of hung back, with a small smile, looking at Tony every once in a while. He was fill in shock, for the longest time he had thought he was a monster, that nothing good could ever come of him. But here he had evidence of it, in his years at the tower, he saw all the great things Tony was capable of creating, he was amazing, so Bucky was content, here was living evidence that good things could come from him.

Arno was dealing with this as best as he probably could, his father was Captain America! His younger brother was Tony Stark! He remembers hearing stories about the great Steve Rogers when he was younger, some stories from books, some on his limited access to a T.V., and some from Jordan, right before she had seemingly left him for good. He had to remind himself that Jordan was still here...she had come back for him, she may look different, but she was still the same person...the only person really, who had looked out for him without being paid to do so, his only companion for the first 15 years of his life. He had made other great friends in his life, a lot of them he still kept in touch with, and a new one friend recently, Nina. But he always remembered Jordan.

Thinking about Jordan made Arno feel like a little kid again. He remembers how he was so young when she left, he had thought she had abandoned him, he had thought that she finally had enough of him, he couldn’t do much. But then he remembered how Jordan always told him he was special, and that he deserved friends and happiness. 

He will admit that at first he was confused about why she hadn’t told him about his parentage sooner, why she didn’t do it one of the times she visited. Now that Arno thought about it, he probably should’ve asked her why she randomly showed up all the time, he didn’t know her, or how they were related, but he didn’t question it because she had always been a constant in his life. Up until the age of 15, Arno didn’t know life without Jordan Andrews in it. He didn’t question it because he was so desperate for a friend.  
Though Jordan had explained it back at his house, she told him how she was going to tell him about his family the very day she was kidnapped, regardless of what Howard had thought, but obviously she never got the chance, and Arno wouldn’t hold that against her, she did the best she could, and she had been more of a parent and friend to him than anyone else.

Arno’s thoughts soon moved to Tony Stark again. His little brother. Growing up he had always wanted to be like Captain America, and as an adult he had been fascinated by the work of Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Jane Foster and Reed Richards. He followed all their big projects, and he was pleased when he found out he could follow along, and actually understand what they were doing. During one of the conversations between him and Tony, Tony had been elated to find out that Arno had a love for technology, engineering, and anything else tech related. Tony made swift promises to show Arno his lab. Arno smiled and laughed along, having a brother was great.

It was only after and hour into the dinner that Jordan’s presence, or lack there of, started to be felt throughout the room. 

That was when something came to the attention of Bucky, Tony, Steve and Natasha. They all remembered how all of Jordan’s memories came back at once, she was probably in shock and grieving about the decades of her life that she had missed, she wa work any overwhelmed with the memories of her time in the Red Room.  
The four of them got together in the corner of the kitchen. From the looks on their faces they each knew what the other three was thinking.

“Oh Gosh, how could we just leave her like that alone?” Tony said, frustration in his voice. He had been so happy to get to know Arno he totally forgot about Jordan.

“And the thing is she looked fine when we dropped her off, she was smiling even!” Steve exclaimed, looking miserable. Natasha nodded in agreement.

Bucky looked pensive, “it was a lie,” he said suddenly. He recognized it for what it was. “A good one too, she made it seem as if she was okay, but we should’ve known better, I should’ve known better. After I got my memories back I wasn’t totally okay right after.” Bucky finished seriously, while the rest of them nodded.

“Should I go to her?” Tony asked urgently. He needed to know what her state of mind was.

“No, send her a text tonight, and then we’ll talk to her tomorrow morning.” Bucky told Tony, “it’s important we give her space on her own to properly sort out her thoughts, then tomorrow we’ll talk to her.” Bucky continued. 

Tony nodded and got his phone out immediately. He still felt a bit bad about just letting Jordan go home like that with minimal questioning, but to be fair she was really convincing, considering it took even Bucky and Natasha this long to realize.

Back at Jordan’s apartment, 

Jordan wasn’t really handling this well, she was mad at herself, mad at herself for walking out of Stark Industries on November 1st 1970, mad at herself for being so weak that she was easily put under control, mad at herself for completing all those missions, and mad at herself for not remembering things sooner.

She was so distraught that she wouldn’t see Tony’s text until much later that night.

Jordan was frustrated, to put it lightly. What was wrong with her! How could she not realize that her life as Dominique had so many holes in it?! She just randomly woke up and was Dominique? Obviously the fake I.D. Came with a background story, but it still wasn’t conclusive, it didn’t make sense that she didn’t remember anything. She never questioned anything after that day she’d been knocked out in Washington. Why?

Jordan was mad at herself for not remembering. It was only after that train of thought that she realized she’d punched the wall near her door, good thing it didn’t lead to anybody else’s room. Jordan was not dealing well, she was so angry with herself, she didn’t like it. Her hand was only throbbing lightly, and bleeding was minimal, and then she remembered...super soldier, of course.

Jordan decides to just go to bed for now, her only other thought is to get drunk, which she physically cannot do, there we go, she thinks to herself...another part of my story that doesn’t make sense, had she never tried to get drunk before in the last two years? This amnesia thing has her all over the place.

Jordan wasn’t okay...as she got in bed she responded to Tony’s text, telling him she wasn’t fully okay but she’d get there, and confirming that she would come by the tower tomorrow. After that she set down her phone and turned over to go to sleep.

Maybe tomorrow she would feel better.


	13. A New Day

Well, Tomorrow is here, Jordan thought to herself as she woke up. And she’s felt less than stellar.

Jordan slowly rolls out of bed, refreshed physically, but feeling completely dead mentally. She begins the process of her morning routine; shower, brush teeth, do hair, eat. And when’s she’s finally sitting at her kitchen bar, she remembers that she’s supposed to go to the tower today to talk about her feelings, ew.

With a grumble, Jordan gets her things and heads out.

Jordan arrives at the tower and as usual, the first floor is bustling with workers, she puts on a fake smile and says hello to the people she works with. She’s glad that she had taken a few weeks off to figure things out ever since the whole Magneto fiasco, she needed time.

She goes to the private elevators and presses the button for the communal floor. 

Jordan arrives and Tony is leaning against the counter and sipping coffee..more like chugging it though really. 

“Morning Jordan.” He says as cheerily as he can for so early in the morning. Jordan grunts a reply and plops down onto a chair on the other side of the counter. She asked him about Arno and Nina, to which he replies that they were out for the day.

Tony, noticing that Jordan is not her normal happy self, decides to start the inevitable conversation.

“I know this week has felt really crazy, so me and a few of the others wanted to know how you were holding up, and we’re sorry that we didn’t insist for you to come back yesterday, you shouldn’t have been alone.” Tony said.

“It’s fine Tony, I’m the one that dropped a life changing bomb on you guys, you were still figuring out stuff too.” Jordan waved him off.

“Um..do you wanna talk about how you’re feeling?” Tony asked, he immediately internally cringed because feelings were not his area of expertise, but he would listen, for Jordan.

Jordan opened her mouth to say no, but then she realized Tony was trying here, so she would have to make an effort too, that and the fact that she could never say no to him..she immediately pushed that thought to the back of her head as her stomach flip-flopped.

“I...I don’t know how to describe it other than I feel as if I’ve missed out.” Jordan started slowly, trying to get her thoughts in line. “I feel like I’ve missed out, and I feel evil.” She continued, fiddling with the fruit bowl in front of her. Tony nodded and gestured for her to keep going.

“All of last night once it caught up to me, was terrible.” She said sadly, “I kept thinking of my parents, I don’t know how the rest of their lives went, I don’t know how the rest of Arno’s life went, and all the broken people I’ve left in my wake, literally broken people.” Jordan forged on.

“I feel abnormal, and my story of these last four years doesn’t add up...if I’m...uhh, enhanced? How come I never discovered that in the last few years? I’ve never tried to get drunk? One day I just woke up and decided I was Dominque Walters because that’s what it said on a paper?” She was started to get agitated and she was talking louder, so she quickly regulated her volume.

“I don’t know what to do Tony, after the happiness of finding Arno and Nina wore off, I remembered the fact that I’m a killer. Every mission came back all at once, some way more blurry than others but I still remember.” She said in quiet despair.

“I feel empty, and like I don’t have any emotions, it’s like in my mind there’s a feeling of happiness...but I can’t grasp it.” Jordan tried her best to gauge Tony’s reaction, she hoped he’d understand, since she didn’t understand her own thoughts, it was stupid to think he would.

“I’m starting to feel like I think I might’ve felt in the Red Room, just an overwhelming feeling of emptiness, on my way here I noticed what a bright and sunny day it was, and I’m not as happy as I would’ve been before all this...and that feels selfish.” Jordan said angrily, really she was only angry at herself, she had been since last night.

“I’m angry at myself.” She decided to voice her thought. “I’m angry that I don’t remember, and I’m angry at myself for getting kidnapped.” She continued breathing harshly through her nose.

“I’m...I’m angry at them..” she trailed off, then continued. “For making me into this.” She finished.

The room was silent for a few moments, then Tony spoke. “It’s okay Jordan, it’s okay to feel that way, and I’m not going to tel you to not feel that way, because it’s important that you feel.” He said. He decided to propose an idea to Jordan that he felt might help.  
“Well...everybody does sort of a group therapy class once a week, it helped us to be able to relate our stories to each other, and help each other feel better, doing what we do isn’t easy, and not every mission ends perfectly and without mishaps, but the therapy helps.” Tony told her.  
“And on top of that there’s individual therapy, and I can get a therapist from the Stark Industries/Avengers team to be assigned to you.” Tony finished. Jordan gave a very small smile, and thanked him.

The room was silent once more, and Tony took the time to think about what Jordan had said. Did he really not notice she was different for 4 years, she didn’t spend every waking moment with him and the rest of the tower’s inhabitants, but she was there a lot. Maybe he would’ve noticed if she lived with them.  
Tony begins to think of reasons why he would’ve missed The fact that Jordan was enhanced, it’s one thing for him to miss things, he’s been accused of being forgetful and neglectful before, and never in a good way. But the spies and assassins didn’t catch on? Granted, Jordan had spent the first two years of her job only in contact with Tony, and she spent time on the lower floors, in the last two years she had become closer with Tony and the Avengers.

Tony thinks about how Steve, and Bucky, and Logan are enhanced, and all the other enhancements of people in the tower.  
The first time Tony saw Jordan’s arms he thought she must’ve just been a huge gym buff, she devoted a lot of her time to S.I. though, so he didn’t know when she would’ve gone. Now that he thinks about it thought, arms like that are not regular, the only people who have arms that are so defined and cut and muscular as Jordan’s are either married to the gym...or they’re super soldiers. Tony mentally facepalms.

He mentally runs through the 4 years he’s known her, he’s never seen her run, or punch anything. But there have been times when she and him had been in his lab, and they lifted something heavy and she would not break a sweat. Tony’s starting to feel stupid, he’s a superhero, he’s supposed to be able to point out things like this. But Jordan’s enhancements are not easy to see, it was hidden well, Tony wonders if she subconsciously hid them, the few people that knew of the Red Room had said they were known for stealth. 

What about eating? Did Jordan need more food than the average person? Did she even know she needed more food than the average person? Had she been eating less than she needed for these past 4 years? This was a winding trail, and Tony’s head was staring to spin.  
He compared her to Steve, Bucky, Logan, Peter, Natasha, literally every enhanced person, and he came up blank.

He focused back on Jordan, and that’s when Sam walked in. After greeting Tony he turned to Jordan.  
“Hey Jordan,” he said jovially, “how’re you doing.” He asked kindly.  
Jordan managed a muffled greeting and a small smile.  
“I’m okay, Sam, thanks.” She said.

Jordan, Tony and Sam exchanged a few more words, Bucky and Steve chose to make an appearance.  
“Morning guys,” Steve said in his ‘I’m such a morning person’ voice, and Tony loudly grunted and looked away, now that he and Jordan’s conversation was over, he was quickly becoming tired again, and the morning people weren’t making it any better.

That’s when Bucky came over a ruffled Tony hair. Tony squeaked out a protest, “I just styled that,” he whined. Everyone laughed except Jordan, her mind elsewhere.

It had been at least half an hour, and the rest of the team was walking in, some more chipper than others. Steve cleared his throat to address the kitchen.  
“Jordan, now that all of a sudden we know you’re a supers soldier, you can accompany me and Bucky on our morning runs!” Steve said in that annoying cheerful happy morning voice of his.

Jordan looked up, almost as if she was surprised someone addressed her, “okay,” she said quietly. She got up and followed Steve and Bucky to the elevators. Maybe a run would do her some good, get rid of the depression that filled her.

————————————

Towards the back of the tower there were multiple acres of land that the Avengers, X-men and Fantastic Four used for training. There was an outdoor gym area, obstacle area, and a huge track, the layout reminded her of the compound that everyone went back and forth from. Jordan had never been but Tony had shown her plenty of pictures.

The three of them made their way over to the track. 

“Okay, so we’ll sprint around ten times.” Steve said, and Bucky nodded, Jordan tilted her head to show she’d heard. At first she startled when Steve suggested ten laps, she remembers Sam telling her never to run with Steve and Bucky, something about how only crazy people sprint at 8 in the morning. But then she remembers that she’s enhanced.

They begin. The track is huge.

Jordan is on her eighth lap, she subconsciously focuses on sprinting, but her mind drifts back to things she doesn’t want to be thinking about. She has no idea how close or far back Steve and Bucky are. All she registers is the wind rushing over her body, and her thoughts.

‘I’ve been cheated at life,’ she thinks to herself angrily, ‘They took my freedom away from me, my freedom, my memories, my thoughts, my opinions...my humanity.’ 

Jordan feels a single tear behind her eye so she roughly runs both of them. She’s reaching the end of her tenth lap so she sprints the last few seconds of the track and stops at the end. She’s not sweating, and she doesn’t feel tired...at all. She’s not surprised. The only way you can tell that she just sprinted 10 laps is her breathing, it’s harsher and deeper, trying to settle her heart.

That’s when she notices Bucky and Steve, and they were beside her, but at some point she must of pulled ahead, she doesn’t know when, she was too in her thoughts.

Bucky and Steve cross the finish line, panting very lightly, they both look shocked. 

“The hell was that?!” Bucky says, still in a bit of shock. Nobody had ever beaten him and Steve at a run before, and whenever Logan ran with them it ended in a tie. Granted they weren’t that far behind Jordan, and they weren’t that tired, but she had still beaten them, significant enough for it to count.

Steve looked shocked as well, that’s when Jordan snapped out of it, she looked at both of them, her breathing now back to normal. She didn’t know what to say, her serum was obviously different than Steve’s or Bucky’s.

They were still standing on the track, and the Avengers, Fantastic Four and X-men were approaching quickly. Everybody had varying looks of shock and approval on their faces. Peter reached Jordan first.

“Wow Dominique! I mean Jordan! Sorry, still getting used to that...but I mean wow! You were really fast..I mean really fast!” Peter said in a flurry of glee and excitement. Jordan mustered up a smile for him. 

She laughed nervously, she had shocked even herself.

“Didn’t even break a sweat, impressive.” Logan said with a smirk. Everyone else agreed.

“Well, looks like she put you two to shame,” Sam joked, then he snapped a picture of Steve and Bucky with their mouthes still open. 

“Hey!” Bucky shouted. Sam just laughed.

Jordan was only half listening to everybody as they walked back inside. 

The X-men were doing to their usual routine, most of the time that included going to the school, so off they went. The Fantastic Four had to settle some affairs with Dr. Doom..(it was always something with hat guy) and they left after assuring the Avengers they could handle it.

——————————-

Everybody else went off to do whatever they usually did on a Thursday, and finally it left Jordan and Tony.

Jordan looked up at him. “Does your offer still stand?” She asked.  
Tony liked confused for a moment, so she elaborated.  
“About staying here?” She asked, twiddling her thumbs.

Tony nodded and smirked. “I was wondering when you’d finally take me up on it,” he said happily. “It’ll be great having you here,” he said, with just a bit more fondness than necessary in his voice, luckily Jordan didn’t notice.

They made their way through the winding halls of the Avengers floor to the large room Tony had designated for Jordan a long time ago. On their way Tony and Jordan lightly made conversation about The possibility of Jordan’s future with the team. 

“Everyone would love to have you,” he started. “We can test your limits over the next few weeks, get you settled in therapy, the gym is stacked..sparring, lifting, and Peter wants you to train him,” Tony finished with a chuckle.

“I’d have to be careful to break his collarbone or something,” Jordan said dismally, Tony laughed, but in reality, Jordan was only half joking, she’s done it before. 

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Tony said gently, despite Jordan’s inner battle, he was still so understanding. That was the thing with Tony, he had a world of problems and dark thoughts, but he’d always make time to listen to everyone else’s. He tried to deny it, but he cared a lot.

Jordan was more present now, being with Tony always grounded her.

Tony, unaware of her thoughts, was still talking and walking. “Wait till you join team training, maybe you can beat Steve and Barnes at that too.” He laughed. Jordan smiled, she loved his laugh..that thought just made her smile wider, so she pretended to look out the windows so he wouldn’t see.

“You’ll be a huge asset on missions, there’s still so many Hydra bases around, not to mention aim...the occasional alien invasion, and by occasional I mean like every month.” Tony groaned. The he hurried to say, “but only if you want too, don’t feel forced or anything,” he said.

Jordan took in his words, honestly, she didn’t know what she wanted to do. Maybe being an Avenger would be good for her mental health, finally doing something good for the world as a whole, instead of just bringing misery to individual people. She could finally associate her skills with something morally correct.

But she still wasn’t in a good state of mind, she had just gotten her memories back, good and bad, she probably shouldn’t be rushing into battle so soon.

“I’ll think about it.” Jordan said. “Maybe I could help...but for now, I...I just need to think,” Jordan told him. She was still very hesitant, she didn’t know if she actually wanted to do it. 

“That’s all I ask, but trust me, you would be a welcome addition.” Tony responds with a lopsided smile. 

By now they had reached Jordan’s door, she had seen the room before, even stayed in it sometimes, but not all of her belongings were here, most of her things were still at the apartment. Tony informed her that he would get someone to help moving her important stuff.

The conversation had tapered off, and now they were just standing in front of Jordan’s door and looking at each other when they thought the other wasn’t looking.  
Jordan didn’t know what else to say, she wasn’t necessarily awkward, Jordan was hardly ever awkward, you couldn’t be when you were an assassin for the KGB. So she was kind of just standing there, internally embarrassed. 

Jordan decided to break the silence, she was starting to notice that once she got her memories back, that quick, sharp efficiency the Red Room beat into her was starting to come back. She didn’t know if that was good or bad yet.

“Okay, well, I’ll just be getting settled in.” Jordan said as she opened the door. She didn’t think she sounded very smooth. “Thank you,” she said, sincerely. She hoped that he got that she meant more than just her room.

“No problem, Jordan.” Tony said, “I’ll see you later for dinner.” He said as he walked away. 

Jordan nodded and closed the door once Tony had turned the corner. And as she walked over to sit on the criminally comfortable bed, she began to think, and for once in the past two days, her thoughts were about something other than the Red Room. They were about Tony.

Jordan didn’t really know how Tony felt about her, and she wouldn’t say anything about to to anyone, because she didn’t know if he felt about her the way she did about him. She didn’t know if he felt about her as much as she did about him, it was complicated. It was complicated because she subconsciously knew that he felt a little more for her, but she did nothing with that information. 

They didn’t really dance around each other or avoid each other, they had an easy friendship, they just didn’t talk about anything more than that, they both knew it existed...and they both knew the other knew it existed...but they just didn’t talk about it. Again, it was complicated. Nothing was stopping them from being more, or going further, but it always felt like they were never there yet, at least that’s how Jordan tried to interpret it.

................

Tony had left Jordan to her own devices, and as he walked through the many halls towards his own room, he began to think, and for once in the past two days, his thoughts were about something other than the life-altering news he’d received days before. They were about Jordan.

Tony thought Jordan was beautiful. He hadn’t shared that sentiment with anyone else in the tower, but he was convinced they knew that he felt something. Over the years, Jordan had become one of his closest friends. By the time she was in his life, he had a firm circle of friends who he knew had his back, and she was a welcome addition to that, and everybody liked her. She was a genuinely happy person when she was Dominque, if a bit jaded and emotionally stunted, but they had chalked that up to the fact that, weren’t they all emotionally stunted? 

Tony had been single for years, the last relationship he had was Pepper, and they had parted ways amiably, and remained friends, but that was it. He’d been single for 5 years without a relationship, and did the paparazzi ever have fun with that. But he hadn’t felt the need to look for a relationship, he felt that he had what he needed, he had the team, and he was happy...content. And with his occupation, it was hard to find someone who would deal with his constant death-defying adventures, but someone had to do it. Being with him meant that they would have to accept the fact that he might come home severely injured...or else might not come home at all, and you couldn’t get mad at people for not wanting that..for choosing stability.

Sometimes the team teased each other over it, “so much for playboy, huh Tony?” Someone would say, then they’d laugh it off together and move on to tease the next person. 

When Jordan..or Dominque at the time walked into the building all those years ago, it wasn’t anything like the movies where people are instantly in love. In fact the first time he ever saw her, she was sitting in the back row after he gave a presentation, lost on her own thoughts, he called to her and told her the presentation was over, and went about his day, he didn’t really spare a second thought.

And then he, Pepper and the board had done some hiring, and one Dominique Walters had gotten the job. 

She was good at it, in then with technology, she knew a lot about the company...like..a lot about the company, as in details going back decades...very specific details and events, like that one accident in ‘68...anyway...that would obviously later be explained...but at first it was kinda creepy. Tony just thought she had done her research and good on her, but not he thinks it was another subconscious memory of things before the Red Room.

The first year, they hardly interacted until he went down to the technician’s labs and was impressed by her skill, he randomly invited a few of the newbies to check out his labs on the upper floor, and that was that. He was impressed with her works so he kept inviting her back, and as the years went by, they grew closer. 

He can’t remember when he started falling for her, but it was slowly, in fact, some days Tony convinced himself that he was still falling.

He still had hang ups though, the most glaring being his occupation, and second the fact that she worked for him, and he didn’t want her to think that he was creepy, or that she was only hired for her looks, but it wasn’t like that, she was a suitable candidate for the job, and she was rewarded purely on skill. 

He had resigned himself to admiring her from afar, even if it hurt him.

But now all had been revealed, Dominique Waters had never existed, but Jordan Andrews did. Tony thought maybe he should try, he could tell her.  
But he was...nervous? This was new to him, not the idea of a relationship, but the fact that he was nervous, the fact that he felt like his heart beat irregularly when she was in the room. And since when was he nervous? He had always approached things with either determination, confidence, and whether it be relationships or battles, he was always self-assured; calm, cool and collected. He told himself that sounded cocky, but he had never approached a relationship with his nerves so erratic before, but he hid it well.

Tony didn’t know when he would tell her...he didn’t even know if he WOULD tell her. And along with the fact that she just got her memories back, and he had invited her to join the team, she had a lot to think about and sort through, he didn’t want to overwhelm her, that was the last thing she needed.

Tony had been waiting a long time, he could wait a little more.


	14. Fitting In

It had been a few weeks since Jordan had moved into the tower permanently. She and the rest of the inhabitants were getting along great, really nothing changed except for the fact that they saw each other continuously now.

Jordan enjoyed living at the tower full time, she still worked as a Technician for Stark Industries, so she would spend the better part of her days in the labs and workshops on the lower levels. 

All other times of the day were spent with the Avengers. Bucky and Steve always managed to coerce her into running with them in the mornings, Jordan would happily indulge them, they claimed that they just wanted her to get some good exercise and get out the tower more, but Jordan knew that they just wanted to see if they could beat her in the sprint...They both had yet to come close.

Every once in a while she would go down to Bruce’s labs and he would do physical check ups and tests on her...she couldn’t get sick like a regular person, and normally she would be afraid of people studying her and looking at her genetic makeup, but Jordan trusted Bruce, she knew he wouldn’t do any harm to her, and she knew that he wouldn’t use her blood for any nefarious purposes. He was simply curious, as a scientist, he always wanted to figure stuff out and understand things, she understood because she saw the same traits in Tony when it came to engineering. Bruce mostly stood around staring at holograms trying to find differences between all the enhanced people’s blood. Jordan usually shrugged and moved on.

With Tony, Jordan talked more with him, Steve, Bucky and Arno about her time at Stark Industries back when Howard ran it. Arno was interested to hear about Howard, and Tony wanted to hear about the times before he was born, and he also wanted to hear Jordan’s perspective on Howard, due to the fact that they didn’t always spend quality time together as Tony was growing up. Steve and Bucky listened with interest. Meanwhile Nina just listened in, even back when Jordan met her she had always loved gossip. Some things never change.

Then there was the unlikely pairing that was Jordan and Peter. Peter would ask Jordan to play video games with him on the huge flatscreen on the main common floor. For the most part Jordan shrugged and agreed. Peter and her would play all kinds of games ranging from everything in the Mario franchise, to Fortnite, to Call of Duty, even NBA2K. Jordan had never played video games, so Peter took the task of teaching her very seriously.  
In the Red Room, Jordan had been taught to pick things up very quickly to avoid punishment, so Peter only ended up having to teach Jordan how to use the controllers for about a week. 

When they played combat games Jordan claimed that the fighting was overdone and overrated. She then proceeded to tell Peter in complete and utter seriousness about how she once had a mission where she took out someone’s eye, it wasn’t her target, but he was in the way. She proceeded to retell the story to Peter in gruesome detail, unaware of the increasing horror on his face. It wasn’t until Steve and Tony walked in and confiscated Jordan’s controller for the day that Peter was released from the gruesome tale. Jordan was just confused, but she shrugged it off.

The Avengers had decided to sign Jordan up for group therapy and individual therapy as soon as possible after that particular event. Ever since she had gotten most of her memories back she had been more subdued, and less emotional, she didn’t smile as much, or laugh, but she wasn’t sad either, it was more like a constant state of in between, or deep concentration, as if she was on a never ending mission. They guessed that 44 years of captivity and brutal combat would do that to you. They didn’t discuss their thoughts with Jordan though, they didn’t want to upset her. But anybody who had known her could see that she wasn’t as bubbly or as lighthearted as before, she was more jaded.

When playing video games with Peter she usually didn’t show emotion, even when Peter beat her, which was admittedly quite often. He did always try to make her laugh or smile though, and he was the most successful, being able to draw out a few smirks, smiles and quiet laughs, and in one memorable occasion, a cry of outrage after Jordan’s Princess Peach was hit by a blue shell. Jordan hates those blue shells.

Jordan had yet to do any combat training with the team, and she hadn’t gone on any missions yet either. She told Tony that she was still thinking about whether or not she wanted to be a member. Everybody was patient, but they still wanted to have her in the field, and see what she could do.

————————————

The time had finally come. Today Jordan had agreed to do some sparring with the team in the training room.

She put on a baggy hoodie, track pants, and some sneakers, she then put her thick hair into a low ponytail, and made her way to the gym.

Today it was just the Avengers, and Jordan was going to do some sparring with Steve, Peter, Bucky, and Natasha.

Peter was up first. “I might be a bit rusty.” Jordan said with a small laugh. “You just try not to break anybody’s arm.” Natasha called out from the stands to the side of the gym. Peter let out a high squeak at what Natasha said, then he tried to play it off as a cough. Jordan pretended not to notice.  
Jordan felt her cheeks get hot, “I’ll do my best,” she called back to Natasha with a smirk/grimace. Natasha had waved off her apologies about her arm and leg, saying it was fine, but now that Jordan was free of the brainwashing, she felt bad about it, not to mention all the other students’ bones she broke over the years.

Jordan and Peter circled each other for a while before Peter threw a punch that Jordan dodged and then caught, using her strength and momentum to flip him over onto his back. After a struggle Peter got back to his feet and continued fighting, Jordan landed almost all of her hits, and Peter managed to land a few. The fight was over in less than 10 minutes, as Jordan had gotten Peter pinned. They stood up and congratulated each other, with Peter making Jordan promise to teach him more of her skills, in return Jordan told Peter she admired his agility and fighting knowledge especially for someone who had gotten their powers fairly recently, and had not grown up with combat training. 

Natasha was up next, she lasted far longer than Peter, and the fight between the two widows was ruthless. They were both taught to have no mercy, and for a while there everyone else in the room thought that the two were serious, Tony worried about calling it off for fear of one of them hurting the other, but he remembered they were professionals, and this was what they knew.  
Natasha and Jordan were two blurs on the mat, a mix of agility, grace, speed, and unmerciful skill. They were taught to fight the same way, and it was clear that they could both hold their own against each other. They both landed hits on each other, and dodged other hits all the same. Jordan had the upper hand for more times in the fight, but Natasha had gotten the upper hand a few times as well. 

This was different from when Jordan had fought Peter. She hadn’t held back, but it was a different fight. This fight was a fight if the widows, you could clearly see in the way they analyzed each other’s moves, and acted accordingly to what the other was doing, when one pulled out a surprise move, the other countered just as easily. This fight was something that could only be born from the Red Room.

This time, Jordan hadn’t realized that the fight was set up similarly to Natasha’s test for the Black Widow Ops all those years ago. Natasha threw another punch which Jordan easily countered with a sweeping kick to knock her off her feet. Natasha used a handspring to bounce back up, and she went in for another kick. 

Jordan used the same move that she had all those years ago, and it flung Natasha through the air and across the mat, Jordan snapped out of her combat mindset and she was frightened for a second...before Natasha managed to land in a kneeling position. Years ago that very hit would have broken her arm and leg, but now she managed to save herself from the fall.

Natasha got up slower this time, clearly starting to get tired, Jordan had gotten the upper hand, her years of experience and enhanced strength, along with the fact that she trained Natasha were ultimately what led her to win the fight. It went on for a few more minutes, before Jordan got Natasha pinned in an inescapable hold.  
They congratulated each other after, same as Jordan and Peter had.

Everyone in the room was clearly impressed with the fight. Especially when Natasha had managed to land after Jordan’s move.  
“You managed to land it,” Jordan said to Natasha.  
Natasha smirked back at Jordan, “What can I say, I’ve had to practice, couldn’t have you putting me out of commission again now could I...clearly I still have work to do though,” Natasha finished. She then made her way back over to the rest of the Avengers on the stands where Tony handed her some water.

Next up was Steve, he and Jordan circled each other before Steve went on the attack. Jordan dodged most of his hits, what Steve lacked in combat moves he made up for in strength, his punches and kicks had power behind them, and you could tell her thought out his moves and fights, strategic thinking if efficient ways to win, and Jordan could do that too.  
With Jordan’s slightly smaller form, she managed to dodge most of his hits and kicks, or counter them with her own attacks. 

However, Jordan managed to get the upper hand, she had time and experience over Steve. He had been trapped in the ice for a long chunk of time, time that people like Natasha, Bucky and Jordan had been using to train, so he knew a little less combat moves than they did. But he continued to make up for it by sparring with his teammates, and using his mind to come up with ways to efficiently beat and enemy as quickly as possible. It would be stupid to disregard him as a formidable fighter, Jordan knew for sure that she was not invincible, she could be beaten at anytime. She never underestimated anyone.  
In this fight, she happened to gain the upper hand, and she pinned Steve in the same hold she did Natasha. She congratulated Steve, and Steve did the same for her, the both of them joking as he walked off the mat about doing it again sometime. 

Last but not least was Bucky.  
Jordan and Bucky circled each other like very one else before, and the fight began in a blur. Jordan slipped into her combative mindset, pure ruthlessness, no mercy, just one goal.

Unbeknownst to each other, this fight reminded the Jordan and Bucky of their fight on top of the car all those years ago, both of them on a mission, the other just an obstacle in the others’ way.  
The rest of the Avengers watched on, captivated by the sheer skill and show of strength from the two soldiers. 

The fight was moving so fast and seamlessly it was like a dance. It was hard to tell who had the upper hand, if anybody at all. They landed hits just as much as they countered, and looking at them both, it was hard to register that these were a couple of enhanced humans, who were in fact not invincible. 

All Jordan knew was this fight, dodging, countering and cataloging potential moves. Thinking of multiple moves that could be used each millisecond to take her out, and planning for them..fighting accordingly.

The fight seemed to drag on, the Avengers could see Bucky sweating a bit, but shaking no signs of slowing down. Jordan hadn’t broken a sweat yet, and she wasn’t slowing down at all. Pure grace, and skill, form the both of them.

It had come to the point where this was almost entirely reminiscent to the fight in top of that car.

Bucky geared up to throw a harsh punch to Jordan, she had been on her knees getting ready to do a sweeping kick, and that’s when she saw the hit coming...

Jordan made sure this time she dodged it, she had learned her lesson from 2014.

After she had dodged the punch, she created some distance between her and Bucky, but not for long as she took a running leap, and as she was airborne she stuck out her left leg and prepared for a kick which would end in a takedown if she did it right.

She ran at Bucky and the kick landed at his chest and he stumbled back a few feet, Jordan pushed off as she kicked and did a backhanded flip, twirling through the air, and as she got lower she got one arm around Bucky’s neck, and another around his metal arm. She was now behind him, so she kneed him in the back of the legs, and he fell to his front...

He was pinned. 

The room was silent, and then there were a bunch of “Ooh’s”, “Aah’s”, and a few “Holy Shits” (from Peter, Sam and Tony) as Jordan helped Bucky up.

“Nice work Jordan, you got me there, it’s gonna be great to have another sparring partner for the team.” Bucky said with a smile, to which the rest of the team agreed.  
“Who knows Bucky, maybe you’ll get me next time.” Jordan said with a small smirk. 

“THAT was supposed to be rusty?!” Sam exclaimed, “I’d hate to be on your bad side when you’re all warmed up!” He said with a laugh. The others agreed. Jordan let out another small laugh. Jordan still didn’t feel really tired, however she did feel as if she had run about 5 marathons, so now would be the optimal time to get a break and some food, otherwise then she would have some problems.

“Wow, that was really impressive,” Bruce said as he walked towards Jordan, Jordan heard a “damn right” in the background, she suspected it was Tony.  
“Bucky what do you have to say for yourself?” Bruce asked jokingly, while Bucky pretended to look down in shame, but he was still laughing along with everyone. 

“Heh, it wasn’t really much Bruce, Bucky almost had me there, he could probably get me next time” Jordan said, if she was honest she wasn’t quite expecting to win that fight, the Winter Soldier was legend, but the Red Room had trained her, beat it into her to keep fighting until she won, and that was what she did.

Bruce was shaking his head in disbelief. “Jordan, when looking at your blood I noticed a significantly higher volume of abnormal fluids in your circulatory system, which could in turn be the result of you demolishing everyone here.” Bruce finished.

“Um, I don’t know about demolishing,” Jordan started with a snort. “But I do know that they pumped me with multiple doses, at least more than five sessions in that...room.” She continued. That was probably the reason why she could run so fast and beat Bucky and Steve no problem, without breaking a sweat, nothing more than some irregular and harsh breathing as proof that she’d been fighting. Sometimes it still made her uncomfortable and sad to talk about.  
Bruce understood this and nodded, his inquiries had been satisfied.

Jordan walked over to the stand where everyone was still talking about the fights, talking about potential missions, more training, team sessions, and combat moves and skills. 

Rhodey and Sam got everyone’s attention and they began making their way back to the common floor for lunch. The group starts walking out the training room, and Tony and Jordan happen to be at the back of the pack.

Tony had been fairly quiet, as he was deep in thought. He knew that if Jordan chose to accept the invitation to become an Avenger, the team would benefit immensely, just another great fighter for criminals to be scared of.

As for the sparring matches, he could not take his eyes off of Jordan, she was so graceful when she fought, precise, elegant even. He knew that people didn’t usually think of those words when describing combat...but he couldn’t think of anything else. Jordan was captivating when she was focused like that, the sheer determination that showed on her face was astounding.

She was beautiful, he thought, not for the first time. His jaw had dropped during the fighting, more than once, Rhodey had to close it, teasing him about catching flies, but Rhodey knew, the rest of the team may have suspected but Rhodey knew for sure, there wasn’t much Tony could hide from him, nor did he want too, so Rhodey knew all about Tony’s feelings for Jordan. The rest of the team though? Denial is the best policy and all that..and let it never be said that Tony Stark could not talk his way out of anything.

“-ny?..-ony?..Tony?” He realized Jordan was calling him, he was still standing in the gym. He quickly fell into step beside her, and they starting walking out together.  
“You okay?” Jordan asked.

“That was incredible!” Tony said with a disbelieving laugh. He paused and then said, “Are you sure you don’t wanna join just yet?” He asked again.

Jordan smirked and thanked him. “Maybe I’ll join, I make no promises,” Jordan said, her smirk quickly turning into laugh. Tony always managed to make her laugh.

Tony let out a dramatic groan, “The suspense is killing me here Jordan, you know I’m not good at the waiting game.” Tony said, meaning it in more ways than one.

Jordan laughed softly as she gently elbowed Tony on their way out.  
Was it time for her to join?


	15. Back Into The Fray

It had been 2 weeks since Jordan first sparred with the team.   
And she had mostly been continuing on with her daily routines, with some added sparring with the Avengers. As far as sparring went, Jordan was undefeated, and nobody else had beaten her in hand to hand.

The same could not be said for her video game skills though.

Currently, Jordan was in the main common floor playing video games with Peter, Arno and Nina...and Peter was absolutely demolishing her, it was sad to watch.  
Jordan let out an emotionless grunt as her character was shot down in the game, this was ridiculous. At least nobody else was there to see this shameful display. Arno and Nina just laughed.

There was a reason nobody was there for this though. The Fantastic Four and the X-men had recently gone on an important mission together, gathering intel on the next stunt Dr. Doom might pull in Latveria. So they were on radio silence to avoid detection.

The Avengers had left to go to Moscow for a mission the week before, something about intercepting some nefarious operation at an Advanced Idea Mechanics base, and how AIM might be trying to develop a new serum to test on kidnapped subjects. Jordan wasn’t privy to all the details, but the point is, it was evil.

So basically for the last week it had been just her, Arno, Nina and Peter when he wasn’t back in Queens with his aunt.

It should’ve been a simple mission, really, it was the Avengers, it should’ve been easy for them to infiltrate AIM and then surprise them with an attack.

Turns out nope, not really.

Peter and Jordan were still playing video games at Jordan’s insistence, she told Peter that she would end up coming in at least 5th place in Mario Kart today, even if it killed her.

However, about 20 minutes into the game, the TV started crackling with static. Jordan and Peter froze, wondering what was going on.  
“What happened?” Nina asked.

Jordan immediately wondered if the tower was under attack, had their systems shut off? She decided to call to FRIDAY, to see if she was still online.

“FRIDAY? Are you still with us? What’s going on,” Jordan asked.

“Yes, Ms. Andrews, I am still online...there appears to be a static interference...someone is trying to contact us through the tower, using the Television screen to broadcast it on the common floor.” FRIDAY responded dutifully.

“Are they trying to insert a virus? What if someone’s trying to hack us?” Peter said warily.

“There is no virus detectable, I will attempt to increase the frequency quality.”

They waited as the static kept going, and then things started to clear up, but the screen was still black. 

And that’s when they heard voices.

“Hel...Hello-Hello?” Somebody asked....Jordan realized it was Tony.

“Tony?” Jordan called out towards the TV, worried. The Avengers were supposed to have been on radio silence.

“Jordan...it’s us..we don’t have much time, but the mission went to shit about two days ago...” Tony said, and he sounded ragged, winded, and there was a high squeal from his lungs every time he he paused speaking, Jordan cataloged all this in record time.

“We’re in Moscow and we didn’t have anyone else to call,” He continued. “It’s like they knew we were coming...they have Wanda, Bruce and Thor in a secure containment room, I don’t know where, and the rest of us are in a different room, the doors and walls are too thick for us to punch our way out, and they’ve got Bucky and Steve on some stuff.” Tony said, his voice cracking a few times.

Jordan was all business now. “I need coordinates,” she told him seriously. Tony began to recite the coordinates to the location in Moscow, and Arno quickly began writing them on a piece of paper. Peter was already ripping off his sweater to reveal his spider suit underneath.

At first Jordan was afraid, she didn’t want Peter to get hurt, but she knew better than to have him sit here, it was only the two of them, she would need help, and Peter could handle himself.

“Ms. Andrews, the frequency appears to be cutting out,” FRIDAY warned Jordan.

“Wait, no!” Jordan moved toward the TV but the frequency had cut off already.

She made to move toward the lower levels where the weapons storage was. Peter was already way ahead of her.

“Wait! Jordan...I-what if..?” Arno didn’t really know what to say, he didn’t want Jordan or Peter to get hurt.

Jordan reassured him, “We’ll bring everyone back, and we’ll be careful, FRIDAY can direct you and Nina to the communication devices and I’ll keep contact.” 

Arno and Nina reluctantly nodded, “Be safe,” Nina said.  
Jordan just nodded and hurried off to follow Peter.

Once she got to the weapons room she saw Peter loading his web shooters, Jordan went to the wall and picked up some handheld guns, automatic rifles, knives, and throwing stars. She remembered how Tony had implied that they’d gotten ambushed. Her and Peter would be going in blind, they had no numbers, and they would almost most definitely be outnumbered, better to be safe than sorry.

Jordan grabbed a crowbar, the lock pick set, and any more weapons she could think of. Then she and Peter hurried off.

They hadn’t exchanged any words, but they both simultaneously headed for the hanger where the smaller Quinjets were kept. Jordan had disclosed to the team a few weeks back that she knew how to fly a plane, helicopter, and she pretty much knew the basic controls for a quinjet. (that one time she infiltrated shield in ‘02)  
Well, she wasn’t complaining now. 

FRIDAY opened to doors to the hanger on the platform, and Jordan and Peter boarded the plane. With FRIDAY’s help, Jordan got the plane started, and she and Peter were off to Moscow. They would get there in a few hours, the quinjet speed was a lot more sophisticated than that of a regular plane.

Jordan turned to Peter to form a plan, Peter had never seen her like this, her face was emotionless...but also serious, and determined, Peter pitied anyone who would choose to get in her way. 

“When we get there we’re going to be outnumbered, outgunned as well” Jordan told him, “we’ll assess the situation when we get there, and we can take the stealth approach inside.” Jordan concluded.

“If there are guards, I’ll deal with them, you take the crowbar and lock pick, and your first objective should be to get to the containment rooms, and free Thor, Wanda and Bruce...it might take a little while because we don’t know our way around the building. But I’ll try to take out guards so your way will be easier.” Jordan relayed that to Peter. And he agreed.

——————————

It had been a few hours since Jordan and Peter had left the tower, and they were approaching a snowy mountainside, the quinjet had been invisible ever since they approached Russia to avoid detection.

When they circled to mountain, they noticed a grey building built within the base of the mountain, the kept the quinjet invisible, and began to make their way to the building.

They were able to blend in due to the fact that it had gotten dark a while ago. 

Just as they were approaching, Jordan realized that she had come out in nothing but her black sweater and some baggy black track pants..great. At least she was wearing some military combat boots, small mercies.  
She would have to be careful to avoid flying bullets.

Jordan and Peter had gotten to a door near the back of the building, after a bit of a climb up the mountain. They obviously couldn’t just walk in, so Peter used the lock pick to get in quietly. He had strapped the crowbar to his back with some webbing.

And they were in.

The first two corners they turned were empty, but then when they turned the third corner..things took a turn for the worse.  
There were about 50 soldiers at the end of the hall, and all of a sudden they started running towards Peter and Jordan. 

Jordan knew what she had to do...but she didn’t want Peter there for it.

“Peter, I have this handled, go see if you can access a blueprint for the building and find the containment rooms!” Jordan yelled out over the stomping of the soldiers.

Peter nodded firmly and quickly swung off just before the first wave of soldiers hit. Jordan flew into action.

She fought hard to hold off the soldiers, she needed to knock them out to keep them from following Peter.

Jordan had to get back in the rhythm of fighting so many people at once, she had done it before, but this number was large.

She had to land hits and kicks while simultaneously dodging knives, bullets and punches. It was a tough and brutal fight.

Jordan worked hard to incapacitate every single one of them, she shot them in places that wouldn’t kill them instantly, since they’d probably go to prison once she was done. She shot people in the thighs, feet, hands, and they were down for the count. She landed punches and kicks to their heads and stomachs. Pressing pressure points until they were knocked out.  
The adrenaline was unreal, Jordan knew nothing but the fight surrounding her, she was determined to get her fiends back, she hoped Peter hadn’t run into to much trouble trying to find the containment rooms.

Jordan contend fighting hard, until she was down to 10 guards left, the other 40 either wailing in agony on the ground, or knocked out cold.

Jordan quickly took care of the rest, she had no time for games.  
She had pulled out her machine gun and shot through the calves of three people at the same time, the same bullet passing through all three guards. She slid across the floor and knocked another guard off his feet, he hit the floor and broke his nose with a sickening crack, and Jordan elbowed him hard in the neck to make sure he wouldn’t be getting up anytime soon.

Six left.

Jordan went the old fashioned way and knocked out 3 of them with a few well aimed kicks and punches.

She had to shoot the rest, one in the leg, another in both feet, and another in the arm.

It was a bloody mess. But everyone was down for the count.  
So much adrenaline was coursing through Jordan, that she was totally unaware of the three bullets that had shot through her stomach.

Jordan wipes a drop of swat form her brow, and hurried to find Peter. She heard commotion coming from a few hallways away, she was grateful for her super hearing.

She turned a few more corners, and up a flight of stairs, and then in the far end of the hall, were the containment rooms, Peter had broken into the room with Thor, Wanda and Bruce. Thor and Wanda looked weary and angry, and Bruce looked like he was about to turn into the Hulk.

Jordan ran down the hall, and helped Peter with the lock pick for the containment room with everybody else. 

Once they got in, Peter began cutting into the chains with the bolt cutter. Everybody looked terrible.  
Bucky and Steve were unresponsive, their pupils dilated, and they were looking around seeming very confused and sluggish. Vision looked to be wearing a power suppressive collar, same as Wanda, and they would have to wait to disable them safely when they got home. And Sam, Scott, Tony, Natasha, and Clint looked like they’d been beat up and starved.  
It reminded Jordan of a regular old day in the Red Room.

That’s when she noticed Nick Fury was there, she hadn’t expected that, but she supposed he was helping the investigation. He didn’t look any better than the rest of them.

Peter was nearly done cutting all the chains, and Jordan was gently helping people stand up, Bucky and Steve seemed to know that the situation was bad, and they had to lean on each other to keep upright.

Jordan bent down towards Tony, he was the last one in line to get his chains cut. Still unaware of her own serious injuries, and feeling absolutely no pain, she began talking to Tony.

“Tony...are you okay? She asked him as she cupped his cheek with a bloody hand. “What did they do, how’d this happen? Was it an ambush?” She asked seriously. The adrenaline still hand worn off.

Tony was weak, just like the rest, due to lack of food and water. Peter, Jordan and Thor began helping everybody up, and then they had to make there was out of the base without being detected.

Jordan was glad Thor was at least not as injured as everybody else, he carried Steve and Bucky over his shoulders.

That’s was when Jordan noticed Bruce struggling. He was gonna turn into the Hulk, he was way to worked up. She could only joke that they would not get hurt.

“Hulk? Hey buddy, we need you to stay calm..please,” Jordan implored him. “Our teammates are hurt, we must help them,” she finished, praying he would understand.

Thankfully he did.  
“People in yellow hurt friends, I smash yellow suit people,” is all Hulk says.

They’ve made it back to the main floor, and everybody pause when they see the string of bloody bodies in the dark hallway. 

“Jordan already smash everybody..leave none for Hulk.” Hulk said, with a bit of annoyance in his tone.

They began walking through the rest of the sea of unconscious bodies.

“Are they..alive?” Fury said in a dry tone. Jordan told him they all should be, and she promptly called the police and told them of the nefarious operations going on at the location, she called in anonymous. The Avengers would be fine by the time the police got out here.

Then she called in Dr. Cho and Nina, and told her to be ready for the team when they got back.  
They avoided any other guards, and finally made it too the exit. 

The energy and adrenaline and bitterness of being able to save her teammates and visit skills of her old past again. 

She still could not feel any pain in her stomach where the three bullets pieced her.

As they walked out, nobody noticed the trail of blood Jordan was steadily leaving behind.


	16. Notice: Please Read

Hey guys, so for this story I’m in the middle of doing a huge revision. Jordan’s memory isn’t going to come back all at once. So if things look a bit confusing that’s because I’m revising the chapters one at a time, I’m currently in the midst of revising chapter 10.

The whole point is to make things less complicated, and rushed. But also to change a few facts and be more specific and in depth when needed. I also had some more ideas and certain things needed to be changed to make way for those. So after I’m done revising I’ll put out another note, and then I’ll continue on with the story. It hopefully won’t take too long because I sometimes revise multiple chapters a day.

Some parts are the same, however other parts of the story have been completely and heavily revised and are very different, so it would probably make more sense to reread from the start.

Thank you, 🙃😊


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